Ozymandias

“Kubla Khan” by Samuel Coleridge (1816)

“Ozymandias” is often compared to “Kubla Khan,” Samuel Coleridge’s 1816 Romantic poem loosely based on the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan. While Shelley establishes his powerful ruler, Ozymandias, as the foil of art and poetry, Coleridge equates Kubla Khan’s kingdom, his “stately pleasure-dome,” with the power of artistic imagination.

“England in 1819” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1839)

“England in 1819,” another sonnet by Shelley, articulates with real world examples his metaphorical criticisms of tyranny in “Ozymandias.” Shelley takes the British system of government to task, particularly its aging monarch George, whom he describes as “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King.”

“On a Stupendous Leg of Granite” by Horace Smith (1818)

While it has achieved none of the fame or renown of “Ozymandias,” it is still a worthwhile exercise to read “On a Stupendous Leg of Granite,” Horace Smith’s entry in his and Shelley’s 1818 sonnet contest. Smith’s poem lacks the metaphorical nuance of “Ozymandias” but more directly connects the topic to contemporary British affairs. He imagines a similar scenario, in which a future traveler marvels at the ruins of London.