This brings us to another contrast between “survive” and “lifeless. Yet, only this passion survived through time as a picture of the fallen king. Passions are usually thought of as “warm” not as a cold sneer. On line 6, this expression is described as one of “passion, ” giving us another contrast. There is a “wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” (line 5). His face is one of power, yet it is not described as a beautiful face. The word visage gives an elegant connotation to the image. A contrast is set up between “shattered” and “visage” as one describes something in pieces, while that something was once the head of a statue.
This offers our most intimate glimpse at the fallen king. Then the traveler zooms in closer and says that near the statue a head (visage) lies, half buried in the sand. The legs are in a desert, giving an image of a “vast”, barren land with just the remains of this statue. The statue that was there was a huge, important man no longer stands except for two legs. The legs being “vast” yet “trunkless” are two contrasting images. The only thing remaining is the two “vast and trunkless legs of stone” (line 2). The traveler starts out by describing a human figure made of stone in the desert. The first four lines of the poem paint the picture where the remains of Ozymandias’ kingdom lie. The land does not have to be far away, just very old. The word “antique” being very important because it brings Time into the mind of the reader very early. Not even able to tell the forgotten story himself, the narrator must rely on a “traveller from an antique land” (line 1). The poem’s one stanza is sufficient to sum up the remains of Ozymandias’ life, and from the very beginning the poet distances himself from the King.
Shelley makes use of contrasting imagery to show that Time is the conqueror of all. The poet paints a picture of a once powerful king whose kingdom no longer exists. Shelley tells the partial story of a once mighty king whose works are now in waste.
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