"...A Kingdom of Isolation, and It Looks like He's the King."

Percy Blythe Shelley’s poem, “Ozymandias,” serves as both an insight to the history of ruthless and powerful leaders and a warning to those who are yet to come.  Shelley starts his poem from an outsider’s perspective.  This gives the feeling that he is unacquainted with what has happened in the past and has an unbiased perspective.  He’s enlightened by a mysterious traveler on the road.  We are clueless as to the name or past of this traveler, but his use of imagery and mystique portray him as one who is wise and wishes to keep the mistakes of the past from repeating themselves in the fates of the living.

 He describes the ruin of a king—one who was obviously mighty at one point because he had the resources to pay for the construction of an enormous statue in his honor.  Shelley uses many references to parts of the body when describing this crumbled statue.  Each represents a different action or attribute.  “Two trunkless legs” refers to someone who once had power and influence and the ability to do as he pleased but is now without direction, connection, or anything to hold his kingdom together.  “The sneer of cold command” on the “wrinkled lip” gives feelings of distance, cruelty, and selfishness.  The king thought nothing of the inhabitants of his kingdom or their well-being.  We are led to infer that he simply saw them as pawns to grow his own might and power. 

This is the mysterious traveler’s warning to not only Shelley, but to us all: The proud and the mighty cannot stand alone.  If we isolate ourselves in our own conquests for greatness, the only real future we have is in desolation, and it is best to learn from the past than make our own destruction in the future.