The speaker in Shelley’s poem has heard a story about the ruins of a once impressive statue of a long dead king named Ozymandias. We know the king’s name because the pedestal where the remnants of two disembodied legs stand reads: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” It’s not only significant irony that “Nothing beside remains,” but also that the egomaniacal king has taken the title of “king of kings,” which is a title Jesus takes for Himself, as can be read in REVELATION 17:14 and REVELATION 19:16. It is also noteworthy that the command of Ozymandias, recorded on the pedestal, is directed at “ye Mighty,” which is capitalized, and a title and adjective used to refer to the God of the Hebrews many times throughout the Bible. It is carved into the pedestal to imply that God is not so mighty, which is not so convincing considering the demise of Ozymandias himself.
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