With the image of the statute being a “wreck, boundless and bare,” the reader gets an image of this statue as beautiful but also pitiful and horrifying as well. With Shelley’s depiction of the “great work” that is the statute one pictures a megalithic structure that is overwhelming to the viewer yet awe inspiring at the same time. The statute that was created by the artist outlived the monarch and has still withstood time. There is a power struggle between the artist that created the statute to withstand the wreckage of time and the monarch who the statute is of. The artist created this statute to represent the power and might of the king Ozymandias, and despite the decaying state it is in still was able to survive the wreckage of time. It is about the power the artist and sculptor of this statute had to withstand time. Ozymandias is not only about the power of nature as Burkes theory of sublime suggests.

Edmund Burke’s sublime aesthetic is articulated in this poem through the legacy of power that has long been forgotten, except for the decaying representation of the king, which is the statute. While it stands alone in the desert the statute represents the once great ruler who sat on top of the world with all the power to go with it. In Ozymandias Shelley creates a sublime effect by illustrating the decaying grand statue of Ozymandias. The lone and level sands stretch far away.” Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Statue of ozymandias