English Literature / Unit 13 ENL 1208 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"Ozymandias"
Captions available
The idea
"Ozymandias," a sonnet published in eighteen eighteen, came from a friendly contest with Horace Smith on Ramesses the Second, whose Greek name was Ozymandias. A traveller "from an antique land" describes a ruined statue whose boastful inscription now stands over empty sand.
In practice
A broken statue; a boast in the desert.
Where people slip
The irony is time's against tyranny.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for English Literature