General Literary Sources - Encyclopedias and Guides - Sophie Plantamura

My task is to find specific resources that will aid my study of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias." I was assigned to focus on encyclopedias and guides. By researching basic overviews of Shelley's poem, I was able to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the context surrounding "Ozymandias" and how this impacts the textual meaning. Here is what I found:

• The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 

https://www-oxfordreference-com.erl.lib.byu.edu/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100259677

Through simply searching "Ozymandias" on the Oxford Reference website, I was able to find a quick reference to the poem from The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. This entry explains that Ozymandias was the prenomen, or throne name, of Ramses II of Egypt. I had assumed that Shelley had just made up the name Ozymandias, but I now understand that it was based on an actual pharaoh. Furthering my understanding, the entry says that a colossal 57-foot statue of Ramses II once stood at Thebes, but now survives only in fragments. On the actual statue, the inscription reads "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" I had no idea that this culminating line of Shelley's poem was actually written on a real statue; this fact illustrates that Shelley had to work around this line to create the rest of the poem. The Egyptian history behind the poem provides insight into Shelley's writing process which only deepened my curiosity. 

• Overview: "Ozymandias" from Poetry for Students (Vol. 27), edited by Ira Mark Milne

On Gale's Literature Resource Center, I did a search for "Ozymandias" and found another straightforward overview of the poem. With a short introduction and a brief line-by-line explanation of the plot, this overview is very useful in understanding both the context and the meaning of "Ozymandias." I learned that the statue is a metaphor for the ultimate powerlessness of man, and that this somewhat depressing realization was out of the ordinary for Shelley to write about. Another interesting fact that I learned was that Shelley wrote this poem for a competition with his fellow poet Horace Smith to see who could write the superior sonnet about Ozymandias. After these interesting historical explanations, the basic plot summary of the poem is also immensely helpful in understanding the meaning of each part of the poem and the significance of each line thematically. 

The usefulness of encyclopedias and guides in the study of literature has certainly been proven to me through this assignment. Through simple searches, I was able to gain a basic understanding of the inspiration and context surrounding the writing of "Ozymandias." The fact that this poem, which was written for a friendly contest, became one of Shelley's most famous is very intriguing and I would love to learn more about that.