“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a fourteen-line symbolic sonnet that demonstrates the decline of power and loss of possessions as its central theme. A sonnet has fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter, and is one of the largest English poetic forms (Holman & Snyder, 2014). However, Shelley's sonnet is committed to the definition of sonnet but his sonnet really helps the reader to truly appreciate the texts within. Shelley's sonnet describes two stories: a traveler observing the sites of ancient ruins and the second traveler is Ozymandias, a Greek name, an ancient Egyptian king and ruler during the thirteenth century BC, whose sculptor tells the story of the king. Shelley achieves this by having the two travelers communicate with each other and ensuring that the reader contains sufficient details about the characteristics of their meeting. This is accomplished by having each traveler detail their observation of each other and themselves. The first traveler, whose story is separate from the other speaker, reports of the strange ruined statue that lies fragmented and decaying in the desert. The speaker's sudden experience is described as “I met a traveler from an ancient land” (line 1). The reader is left wondering whether that traveler comes from an ancient land or is just passing through. From the beginning, Shelley's description of the traveler draws the reader into a visualization of what the traveler might look like. The second speaker is now in conversation with the traveler, and the traveler's story is separated from the speaker's immediate experience. Throughout the entire poem Shelley never really explains where this conversation takes place between the speaker and the traveler about the decaying statue. Again, this allows the…half of the card…permanent or forever. People, places and possessions are transitory and will fade over time. It is important to keep in mind the views and perspectives of both travelers. The unknown traveler, by narrating and describing the scene, creates the mystery of a king lost in time and is reduced to the following short sentence “There remains nothing but”. Shelley reinforces the setting by stating that the sculptors "half sunk, shattered face lies, whose frown" is not how you are remembered, it is how travelers understand your life. Works Cited Holman, B. & Snyder, M. (2014). Sonnet. Retrieved from http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/g/sonnet.htm Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2013). Symbol. In J. Terry, K. Glynn, & D. Campion (eds.), Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing (7 ed., pp. 234-245; pp. 250-256). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education