Ozymandias--notes

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**About the text: **
It's easy to find "Ozymandias" on the World Wide Web; however, you need to be careful about the way the poem's been reproduced. While any version you find will be "roughly" accurate, there are differences in punctuation, capitalization, and spelling among the various versions. For instance see this e-text from Bartleby.com and notice the differences between it and the version I've reproduced on the wiki: http://www.bartleby.com/41/515.html

 The version I've printed on the wiki is based on the standard version of Shelley's poems found in //The Norton Anthology of English Literature// (see p. 744 in the 8th ed.) and //Longman// //Anthology//. The poem was originally published in //The Examiner// January 11th, 1818.

**Notes on the poem:**

 Shelley's title: Ozymandias is the Greek name for the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II. In the //Examiner//, Shelley signed his name "Glirastes."

 **Antique:** Shelley is using this word to mean ancient; the traveller is coming from lands where there were ancient civilizations.

 **Sand**: By using this word Shelley reinforces the notion of timelessness and of emptiness.

**Some final words about the poem:**

Shelley's friend Horace Smith wrote a sonnet on the same topic, which was also published in //The Examiner// of February 1, 1811. Here's Smith's Sonnet:

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desart knows: -- "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone, "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows "The wonders of my hand." - -The City's gone, -- Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon.  We wonder,- -and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
 * [[image:egypt5.jpg width="319" height="289" align="left"]]Ozymandias**

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