Rowen's "Ozymandias" Prewriting

Hannah's "Ozymandius" Prewriting

Jaidyn's "Ozymandias" Prewriting

Alyssa's "Ozymandias" Prewriting

James' "Ozymandias" Prewriting

General Literary Resources - Encyclopedias and Guides - Eliza Hafen

Here I have set out to research Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" using encyclopedias and guides. Researching a poem, or the contents thereof, in resources such as encyclopedias and guides allows people to break down the surface area of a poem, or other literary work, and allow them to delve more into the deeper contextual ideas of the work. But not only that, but sometimes the surface area information will provide information that will in turn create a deeper meaning of the poem.

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The first resource that I used was the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Why this resource was particularly helpful is because not only did it list the meaning of the word "Ozymandias" right off the bat, but it also listed a bunch of other guides and helpful resources that would be wonderful to use when studying this poem. It informs us that "Ozymandias" is the "corruption of the prenomen of Ramses II of Egypt". My own personal study of the poem "Ozymandias," is particularly effected by the word "corruption". Having read the poem to gain a slight understanding of the king Ozymandias once was, the word "corruption" allows me to view the king in a different light, and ponder the reason for the felling of the statue in the first place. I would say that this source is very valuable. It isn't particularly valuable as a stand alone source of information in and of itself. The definition of Ozymandias was actually the only piece of information that I got from this site. However, the reference to other guides and poetry encyclopedias is something that I find helpful.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 96, British Romantic Poets, 1789-1832, Second Series, edited by John R. Greenfield
The second resource that I used was an article that I found with the website encyclopedia.com, searching the word "Ozymandias". Instantly what appeared was this literary treasure chest that had a breakdown of the poem line by line, information about the author, information about different terms in the work, and a historical overview of the context of history during that time. These came from an article written in Dictionary of Literary Biography, edited by John Greenfield. It was in this historical overview that I found myself spending my time. This section focused primarily on the movement of Romantic writers, and something that it said was "The Romantics elevated the perceived value of the individual, as well as of nature and the wild. Romantic writers tended toward emotional expression that often cycled between ecstasy and despair." This description of Romantic-style writing fit perfectly with the poem "Ozymandias". That line already guides our minds towards the idea of the value of each of the individuals mentioned in the poem. What is the meaning of the traveler, the narrator, or Ozymandias? What kind of value does each one of them bring to the poem? Definitely a line of thought that is going to enhance my study of this poem.


Before this assignment, I didn’t doubt the usefulness of encyclopedias and guides, but it certainly wasn’t my go-to resource. However, one thing that was very clear during this little hour of research, was that beginning with guides and encyclopedias would be an excellent way to start any literary project because these resources typically lead to a plethora of other sources that will enhance the literary value of a project, and the knowledge of the writer.

General Literary Resources - Genre Reference Works - Alyssa Ip

My assignment requires that I find a particular resource to help in the study of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias." I have been tasked with discovering genre reference works, in the hopes that knowing more about the typical conventions of this type of poetry will aid me in discussing Shelley's work with better understanding and meaning. The following sources are what I have found:

William Harmon, A Handbook to Literature

Since this book is a good starting reference for all things literature-related, it is here that I began my search. Several copies of this book may be found on the fifth floor of our university’s library. This resource includes several helpful entries not only on poetry, but also on the sonnet as a subgenre of poetry as well as insight on Romanticism as a creative period. Broadly speaking, poetry “adds to our store of knowledge or experience” by expressing thoughts in rhythmic, imaginative, and concrete ways. As a form of poetry, the sonnet has developed from two different types, the Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean (or English) sonnet. Its form was first practiced in the thirteenth century in Italy, and increased in popularity throughout the Renaissance. The Romantic movement in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is characterized by rather poetic social values; the imaginative, natural, primitive, and mystical aspects of life were more greatly emphasized in the arts, and a deepened “sympathetic interest in the past” arose. 

Literature Online

Though at first sight strikingly similar to the first, this source not only willingly revealed the differences between the Italian and the English sonnet, but also expanded a bit on the history of the form. I found this resource while searching the databases on the BYU library website. The entry I found describing the specifics of sonnets details the various changes made over the centuries to this type of poetry. The Italian Petrarch established this style of writing poetry in the fourteenth century, with the subject matter typically centering around love, especially courtly love. It was so popular that the sonnet expanded to Spain, France, and England during the Renaissance, and eventually to Germany. During the succeeding eighteenth century, the sonnet’s popularity waned, but was again brought forth by the hands of some of the Romantic poets, including Keats and Wordsworth.

I think it is rather interesting that this particular form of poetry fell in popularity during the eighteenth century and then resurfaced with the Romantics, the time period that Shelley wrote in. Given this context, perhaps "Ozymandias" could be seen as an ode to what once was in view of the dawning century.

General Literary Sources - Textual Reference Work - Estephanie Chavarria

My goal is to find certain sources that can help me understand the style, meaning, and literary devices that the poem "Ozymandias" may contain. Textual Reference work focuses on the meaning of words, style, and phrasing of literature.


Poem Guide from Poetry Foundation
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69503/percy-bysshe-shelley-ozymandias

While searching for sources, I came across a poem guide from Poetry Foundation. This guide, explains the poems approach. What really caught my eye, while reading this poem guide, was how it described the poem as having a sidelong approach to its topic. I found this to be very interesting because it made me realize that the poem began with "I". Throughout the poem this seems to fade, and then becomes, somewhat of a mystery to whom the poem is referring to.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/visage

 The way that this poem is written, it is easy to lose yourself in its story, rather than finding the meaning of what the poem is trying to portray. The first time that I read "Ozymandias" I read the word visage and did not really understand what it meant. I proceeded to find the definition in Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and for some reason when I read visage the first time, I felt like it was describing more of a scenery.

Using these sources made me find things that I overlooked the first time I read though "Ozymandias". It made me realize how sources are incredibly important, and how big of a difference they make in ones research. Sources are a great tool that can help bring to light certain things that are hidden in literature.

General Literary Resources - Encyclopedias and Guides - Ariel H.

  My task is to find an encyclopedia or guide that could potentially help us to study Ozymandias, a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The idea is that finding an article or guide relating to the topic of the poem, Ozymandias himself, then we may be able to understand the poem itself more in depth.

• Shelley’s Monument to Ozymandias by Anne Janowitz (1984): This article I managed to find through the Gail Literature Resource Center. Janowitz describes the context of the poem, how it was written in between the mid-eighteenth century and early nineteenth century when English citizens craved the exotica of Egyptian ruins and artifacts. It was constructed the way it was as a Romantic irony, in which the poem rocks back and forth in between its form of “sonnet” and something else entirely, forcing the reader to decide if it’s preserving the art or mocking it, or both. 
• Postponement and Perspectives in Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ by William Freedman (1986): Also found through the Gail Literature Resource Center, this article dives into the issue that the meaning of the poem is difficult to achieve until the final interpretation. While the Pharaoh Ozymandias, or Ramses II, did exist and had a statue created in his likeness, the question as to who the Traveler is and what role they play in the poem was a concern for literary critics. One suggestion is that it makes the accuracy of the depiction less reliable than it would have been if told by the poet or the narrating character themselves. The reader asks more responsively: is the Traveler a valid source? The distance between characters makes the reader ask more questions and feel more deception. Then, the structure of the piece leaves the reader with distrust towards the poem itself as it complicates the hidden message a layer deeper than just the unreliable Traveler.

   Understanding that Shelley was layering in deception in a piece about a fallen, mighty King leaves the audience with more to contemplate on their own. These sources suggest that the author wanted the meaning to be left up for interpretation, like a game between author, character, and reader where the author is almost cheating the system, but just enough to make you pay more attention to the poem.

General Literary Resources - Genre Reference Works- Annie Robinson

I was asked to research genre reference works for the poem Ozymandias. I am looking to better understand why the author choose to use the form that he did and how it affects the over all meaning of the poem. Here are two sources I looked at:

The Oxford Companion to English Literature
https://www-oxfordreference-com.erl.lib.byu.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806871.001.0001/acref-9780192806871-e-7079?rskey=37bJnc&result=1

I found this resource through the BYU Library website, under a section called English Literatures Reference, after looking through a few of the different references they had listed there. It was fairly brief however it explained the two most prominent patterns in the genre of sonnets as well as a brief overview of poets and time periods where sonnets were used. It also showed how subject matter within sonnets changed in time. This article was useful in showing me how the contemporaries of Percy Bysshe Shelley were writing sonnets with subject matter focusing on "religious, political, and philosophical" themes making me reconsider just exactly what subject Shelley is addressing in Ozymandias. This source was pretty brief overview and I think there may be more in-depth sources that would be more valuable in understanding the genre.

Studying the Sonnet: An Introduction to the Importance of Form in Poetry
https://teachers.yale.edu/curriculum/viewer/initiative_05.01.11_u
This was a longer article from the Yale National Intiative focused on many different aspects of the sonnet, however I focused specifically on the section titled The Sonnet's Structure and Important Characteristics  because I felt this section best helped me understand some of the constraints and formal challenges of using the form of a sonnet. This article helped me to understand that using a sonnet, one has to be very particular and concise with one's words. After researching this I feel that I would be more qualified to analyze the these features in regards to the meaning of the poem. This source was very useful in giving me a better feel for sonnets as a genre.

Focusing on genre reference works could help one to analyze the form and structure of Ozymandias as well as the subject matter of the poem. I think after this exercise I am much more curious as to why Shelley used a sonnet to depict this scene that has elements that could have been highlighted in a different mode of poetry. Basically, the question I'm now really pondering about is why write a sonnet about the king of kings Ozymandias?

General Literary Resources - Genre Reference Works - Savannah Kimzey

My task is to find a genre reference work to assist my studies of Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Through studying the genre of the Ozymandias poem it will hopefully enhance my ability to interpret and analyze Shelley's poem. Here are the various sources I found:

British Library Learning English Timeline
https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126940.html
The British Library Learning English Timeline taught that Ozymandias is a sonnet written in iambic pentameter. This website did not provide a lot of information over various genres, in specific the genre that Shelley uses however I was able to connect a small amount of historical context to the piece knowing it was a sonnet. Most sonnets are poems about love or associated with love and appearances and it was interesting for me to think of Shelley's piece with the mindset that Ozymandias was so infatuated with himself that it's a love poem to himself purely focused on his (weathered) appearance and fame.

Poets.org
https://poets.org/glossary/sonnet
While Poets.org would not be useful in every literary situation it was extremely helpful in my analysis of Shelley's Ozymandias. Because of my research in British Library I was able to then research more on the specific genre of poetry and the subgroup sonnets. Theoretically I even went into a sub-sub group about English sonnets. Seeing how English sonnets are also referred to as Shakespearean sonnets it made me curious to research the age of Shelley and the time period that Ozymandias was written in. Poets.org was extremely helpful in teaching me more about the specifics of sonnets and the various types, structures and themes that accompany them. The source also provided examples of different sonnets to show structure and form.

Through these various sources that I examined I was able to learn more about the basis of Ozymandias and the potential backgrounds for why Shelley wrote it as the genre of English, or Shakespearean Sonnet. It makes me want to further explore why a few parts of the poem are not written in the same meter as the rest of the poem and to further explore what inspired Shelley to write Ozymandius as a sonnet.

General Literary Resources - Textual Reference Works - Magda Pfunder

I was assigned to find some textual reference works that might help us better understand the poem "Ozymandias". Textual reference works are meant to help us understand words, diction, and style used throughout a work.

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/despair#h1
This resource could be very helpful in understanding Percy Bysshe Shelley's work because of the carefully chosen words in this poem. Using a common dictionary would help one to understand where these words come from, how they are used, and what exactly they mean, which in turn helps one to understand why the author might have chosen them to convey exactly what they wanted to say. For example, I looked up the work "despair" in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, used by Ozymandias in the last few lines: "Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!". I found that despair was used primarily as a noun to aid in describing how an action was done (to "cry out in despair" or to "give in to despair", to name some examples) until about the 14th century, when it came to be used more as a verb, as it is used here. When it is used as a verb, the emotion seems stronger; when we just "despair", it seems that the sadness and hopelessness takes over our entire body, as opposed to simply "crying out in despair" or something of that sort. Understanding this helps me understand how proud Ozymandias had to be of his "Works" to command others to look on them and "despair".

The Historical Thesaurus of English
https://ht.ac.uk/category/?type=search&qsearch=sneer&page=1#id=126678
Using this tool was interesting and enlightening because it allowed me to look up words used in this poem and discover when they were used, how long they were used, and what feeling they convey when they are used. This tool would be helpful in analyzing poetry because it helps us understand the feeling that we get from reading certain words as compared to other words. I looked up the word "sneer", which was used to describe King Ozymandias's face: "sneer of cold command". I found that it was categorized under "express contempt of" in the thesaurus, and even further sub-categorized under "by facial expression". What I found interesting was that, excluding the word "frown", it was the only word categorized under that heading. "Sneer" seemed to be the only way that one could express contempt only with one's face. In order to show the personality of Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley only had the Ozymandias's face to work with. From the word "sneer", we can understand Ozymandias's character even though we never see any part of him other than the head of his statue.

Using these resources was simple and easy, and something I would not think to use when analyzing literature or poetry. However, using these resources makes sense because of how carefully words are chosen, especially in poetry. Someone researching "Ozymandias" in this way would find, I think, that every word in the poem is chosen to portray an over-the-top character of Ozymandias, further adding to the irony of the poem's conclusion.

General Literary Resources - Genre Reference Works - Matt Kunz

I was assigned Genre Reference Works. While looking for resources of this type, I hope to better understand the genre of "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Having a better understanding of the genre will help me interpret and analyze it more thoroughly. Listed below is a brief annotation of the resources I found.

• Poetry Foundation
This website offers thousands of definitions related to poetry. This can clarify questions regarding the genre of poetry. The biggest use from this in relation to genre is that it provides a glossary of the different poetic types. For this particular poem, I discovered that it is generally considered a sonnet. Because of this, I found historical context, and descriptions of the different types of sonnets. Through a better understanding of the historical context behind a genre, it allows deeper and different analytical paths when looking at a particular poem or an piece of literature.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/

• The History of the English Sonnet (2014)
This source offers an in depth look at where the English sonnet comes from. As mentioned earlier, knowing the historical information about a genre can help one understand a poem better. However, knowing the origin of a genre can also help in the analysis process. Looking into the origins of sonnets, I feel that I can more comfortably understand different meanings behind this poem.
http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v3(4)/Version-2/H0342064088.pdf

After looking into these different sources, I feel that I could even start identifying what kind of sonnet “Ozymandias” is and start discussing how that affects it as a poem. Or even, how it would be different if it was written in another poetic style.

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. 

General Literary Resources– Encyclopedias and Guides-- Jaidyn Eardley

I have found some literary resources to help me better understand a text before consulting literary criticism. The text is Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias.” I have researched encyclopedias and guides. These resources are concise and can help a reader become generally familiar with a text without delving too deep into detail.

1. Literary Reference Center. I found this on my university’s library databases. This online database contains many different sources of information. The specific one that I  looked at is a short article titled simply “Ozymandias.” It gives a broad but comprehensive explanation of various aspects of the poem, including a line-by-line breakdown, examples of form and devices, and commentary on its theme. For example, we read that “‘Ozymandias’ is at first glance a sonnet about the transitory nature of life and its pretensions of fame and fortune.” Statements like this give us things to think about while allowing for the possibility of our own interpretation. Though the article is fairly short, it was effective at familiarizing me with “Ozymandias.”
2. Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. If you thought that the previous source was brief, wait until you see this one! This encyclopedia provides only a few sentences, but they are sufficient to help us understand the basics of the poem. It offers details about the poem’s history, author, and subject, which could be expanded on with further research. Like the LRC, this entry gives a summary of the text’s general theme: “the poem offers an ironic commentary on the fleeting nature of power.” Some might argue that this source is not particularly useful, but for someone who is totally unfamiliar with the work of Percy Shelley, it’s an excellent starting point.

Encyclopedic sources are interesting because they can’t help but overlap with other source types– history, author's biography, etc. The above sources could be useful in a variety of ways. Most importantly, they help us understand the context of the poem, as well as helping to set the stage for formal and thematic analysis.



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General Literary Resources- Literary Histories or Periods- Maddi Winterbottom

My assignment was to find two resources explaining the history related to "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. If I can learn more about the history when the sonnet was written, like specific themes in that era, common politics or practices, and the background of the author, then I'll be able to better understand the presented themes and ideas in the sonnet.

• The Oxford Companion to English Literature: This resource, which I found through some preliminary research of the time and setting of Shelley's published work and then searching for appropriate companion guides, provided insights of author biographies showing the events in the author's life surrounding certain pieces they wrote. This was especially helpful as it showed more into Shelley's life and background apart from being a poet, and critical events in his life that may have affected different pieces or writing styles of his. One such, is that Shelley was viewed as a radical. He was born in Sussex and was predicted to be a member of parliament. Additionally, as he studied at Oxford he read from radical authors. The resource also highlights that Shelley had a hatred of oppression. These events could highlight a more extreme political view in is poem, "Ozymandias,"  that perhaps he was showing the wrongfulness of claiming land and power.
• Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World; British Literature: Though an encyclopedia, this resource showcased pertinent information relative to the setting and politics during the time Shelley was writing. It highlights the genre of poetry at the time, and the events in history that impacted his work, and the work of other poets. For example, an entry about the 18th and 19th century shows that Shelley was amongst the second-generation of the romantic poets, and he was largely influence by the "Lake Poets." There's was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and urbanism. These insights suggest that Shelley was concerned about expansion and the politics of his time, as were other poets before him. His sonnet about the "King of Kings" as his statue lies in rubble, shows that Shelley was aware of the long-term affects of the revolution and urbanism, and how impermanent these features would be, and the wastelands they could create.

The context from these sources shows that Shelley's writing was largely centered on the events during his time as he was influenced both by his upbringing in the political scene, and also by the radical poets during his time who shared his ideals. Because of the era Shelley was writing in, it would be interesting to go look at more of his writing and see the lens with which he was writing through, and the arguable propaganda he was presenting at the time. 

General Literary Resources -Textual Reference Works - Rowen Bahmer

Here I describe two textual reference works, designed to help the reader better understand the language of the text at hand. Specifically, I have searched for reference works which will act as a guide to the reader in understanding Percy Shelly's poem "Ozymandias." If I can develop a background in the language of Shelly's poetry, I will be better able to read and analyze that poetry in an appropriate context. 

Preface by Mrs. Shelly. "Notes to the Complete Poetical Work of Percy Bysshe Shelly"

https://search.lib.byu.edu/byu/record/edsbyu.e025xna.350514?holding=2h2vgsbmqtckillr

While this work may initially seem like a piece of biographical evidence of the author, Mary Shelly's preface to this book specifically states that she will avoid all reference to Percy Shelly's personal life, instead focusing throughout the book on how Shelly's individual poems came to be. She describes Shelly's motivations for writing as well as various categories into which his poems can be placed, which helps me to understand Shelly's writing. Ozymandias likely falls into the category of the "purely imaginative" poetry. She discusses in depth the overall themes of Shelly's poetry, as well as Shelly's strategies when attempting to put his feelings to words. 

A Companion to Romantic Poetry

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781444390650

After attempting to find more Shelley-specific sources, I finally decided to widen my scope to cover the whole of romantic poetry (why I didn't do this earlier is beyond me).  The book, which is available through the Wiley Online Library, provides insight into the traits common to all romantic poetry, of which Shelly's Ozymandias is a part. In the first chapter, the author discusses the ways in which a lyric poem "Bear[s] out a poet's essential idea of poetry." The introduction to "Ozymandias" could be construed to represent that ideal- Shelly's statement "I met a traveler from an antique land" introduces the poem and provides context for what poetry is, at least for "Ozymandias." Shelly demonstrates the inherent otherworldliness of poetry by making the subject of his poem very definitely removed from himself. 

General Literary Resources- Literary Histories or Periods- Hannah Uffens

The period in which a written work was created has power to  influence it’s context and meaning.  For this assignment I looked in to resources that explained the history pertaining to “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 

-The Oxford Companion to English Literature

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806871.001.0001/acref-9780192806871

With this resource I was able to understand more of the history during the period that “Ozymandius” was written. The poem was published in 1818, just a few years after Shelley traveled through post‐war France, Switzerland, and Germany. The many wars and bloodshed in the years leading up to the publication of “Ozymandius” perhaps influenced the idea of lacking a greater power and peace in this world, which is expressed in the poem. Many governments, such as France, were not stable during these years despite their seeming previous power. Additionally, at this time there were many authors and people that explored the thoughts of atheism, and expressed their thoughts on a Godless world. This also could have played a role in shaping the poem as it refers to the fallen Ozymandias as “King of Kings,” a phrase used to reference Christ in the Bible. 

-Timelines of Arts and Literature

This source provides a timeline of the world’s events and the literary highlights of each year since 500 B.C. I researched the year of and leading up to the publishing of “Oxymandius.” I learned that in 1815, Napolean reentered France and in the “Hundred Days” raised a new army. However, he was defeated the same year by Allied forces. Despite Napolean’s army and his vicious ruling he was unable to continue his reign. This connects to the poem, as “Oxymandius” was, as his statue plate reads, once a great ruler. The irony of the poem also demonstrates this connection as Oxymandius statue lies in the sand defeated, similar to Napolean’s defeat. I loved the simple format of this book and the information was very relevant when searching to better understand a piece of literature from a historic point of view. 

When I first read Shelley’s poem, I was pretty unclear on the meaning. I feel that as I read through these sources I was better able to understand Shelley more and his experiences as well as his poem “Oxymandius.”

General Literary Resources - Textual Reference Works - James Dosdall

My assignment was to find two textual references works regarding Percy Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias." As best I understand--which isn't very good--textual reference works are any sort of text that gives information about the piece in a very broad sense, specifically how it relates to literary tropes and other texts of similar genres (I may be entirely off on that, I don't really understand this assignment to be honest!)

• Oxford English Dictionary - the Oxford English dictionary could be a helpful resource for understand "Ozymandias." I got the idea for this research while simply Googling "Ozymandias" in order to get ideas for sources. I stumbled upon a Wikipedia article--yes, I know--that mentioned in passing that "Ozymandias" was written as a part of a friendly competition between Shelley and a fellow poet, Horace Smith. They both wrote similar poems, both of which explored the human flaw of hubris. One way the Oxford Dictionary could be used is to define hubris to understand the history and context of the concept and how the poem "Ozymandias" relates to other literary texts that have dealt with that trope in the past. The dictionary could also be useful for getting more precise definitions of the host of adjectives and images the poem evokes, as Shelley's diction is very important to the overall meaning of the piece. 
• Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric - The Forest of Rhetoric could be a useful resource for getting a better understanding of the rhetorical techniques Shelley uses in the poem. This website allows you to simply look up a term--an example one could use from "Ozymandias" is "irony"--and get a comprehensive definition, as well as a host of other resources on the subject. This website could be very useful for laying groundwork in an analytical essay, particularly in an introduction. 

Neither of the above resources give a great deal of information specifically relevant to Ozymandias. However, they would both be useful for giving authority to the groundwork you lay in an essay. Both of the above sources could be used to establish a greater understanding of broad, literary terms that could be used to analyze "Ozymandias." 

General Literary Resources - Literary Histories or Periods - Dylan Stuflick

My assignment is to find resources for the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Specifically I will be looking into the literary history or period surrounding the creation of this poem. This can provide me with some context regarding influences on the creation of the poem and perhaps the popular type of literature being created at the time.

• The Oxford Companion to English Literature: This resource provides both brief biographies of the authors, but also a reference to other occurrences during the time the author was alive. Some of the key events during Shelley's life time. A few items that I found interesting was the fact that "Ozymandias" was written in 1818, a period in which English Romanticism was alive and well. Atheism and Industrialism was also on the rise. "Ozymandias" reflects these attitudes with its rejections of power and idea of having a lasting impact on the world. This could easily be referencing the growing materialism of the time especially in regards to industrialism and the dubious, tyrannical practices common to the period. 
• The Norton Anthology World Literature: This resource provides a compilation of important pieces of world literature as well as a timeline at the end that includes all of the major works in an era as well as major events. What serves as perhaps the most relevant piece of information gained from this was the massive movement towards empire building. A few years before the creation of this poem, Napoleon had attempted to expand his own empire. The British Empire was also growing rapidly, now having gained control over central India. 

The context provided by these two sources helps to greatly expand on the meaning of the poem in my opinion. It can now be set most likely as a response to the expanding imperialistic mindset, but also can be a reflection on the pushback of older ideas of the world, both as Atheism became more prominent and as industrialism grew. The reason it is still studied however is that these same trends continue to apply today. Imperialism remains a concern and the growth of technology rapidly expands.