Much of the imagery of Shelley’s poem contains specific details of the statue, and the symbolic meaning of the statue in its crumbling state impacts the reader’s understanding of the both tone and themes of the poems. The statue, in reality, is an enormous piece of art that attests to the grandness of Ramses II and his successful leadership of a powerful military state. “Ozymandias,” as a literary work of art, complements the statue on which it is based by assuring immortality for the subject of both the poem and monument.

At the same time, the poem’s depiction of the statue of Ozymandias represents the myopic pride and hubris of man, particularly those in a position of power. While Shelley’s source, Diodorus Siculus, notably describes an intact statue sitting upright (“In so great a work there is not to be discerned the least flaw, or any other blemish”), Shelley’s monument is broken, referred to as “that colossal Wreck” (Line 13).

Shelley’s “lone and level sands” (Line 14) represent, on the most basic level, the passage of time, but the desert is also characterized by a sense of passivity. Ozymandias’s statue was not toppled by his rival kings or by any of the forces he might have feared.