Shelley and Smith: Questions for Discussion and Further Research
While students may be tempted to imagine the Romantics as apolitical, the “Ozymandias” sonnets offer evidence quite to the contrary. As you answer the following questions, consider the relationship of both poems to their shared historical moment.
Discuss:
- Who is Ozymandias in each poem, and how is he represented? What message(s) does he carry for the people who come after him?
- Who are the audiences — both within the imaginary space of the poems and among real-life readers — for Ozymandias’s warnings? Why are the warnings relevant to them?
- Look up the meaning of the word “hubris.” How does this concept apply to Ozymandias? How can it potentially be applied to the poem’s readers? The British empire?
Do further research:
- Using your college library resources, research the history of the British Museum and its acquisitions of artifacts from other lands (including the statue that inspired the “Ozymandias” poems). How did the British Museum get its foreign holdings? What moral and ethical issues do such acquisitions raise? What do your readings (and the poems) suggest about the motivation for acquiring “spoils” from other nations and empires — in other words, why did the British government do this?
