Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
These lines have been taken from Shelley's unique sonnet "Ozymandias". In these lines, through a description of the broken statue of Ozymandias, the poet suggests king's cruelty, and also the artist's attitude towards him.
These lines describe a broken statue of very powerful king who ruled Egypt in ancient times. His name was Rameses II or Vasimare. Shelley calls him Ozymandias. Before his death Ozymandias ordered an artist to make a statue for him. The artist made and placed it on a pedestal. Long after his death, the statue was broken into pieces. The legs were still on the pedestal but the other parts of his body were lying around the pedestal. His shattered head was half sunk in the sands. His face could be seen. There was frown in his face. His lips were wrinkled. There was also sneer of cruel order. All these reflected that the king was proud of his absolute power. The sculptor who made the statue understood the character of the king and succeeded in reflecting it on the face of the statue. Though the statue was lifeless, the passions of the king were alive in his face. The statue became a witness of history. While making the statue, the artist might have laughed at the king's personality because he knew that the king's pomp and power would turn meaningless after a certain time. The artist, who hated the cruelty of t king, was no more. The king was also no more but his broken face was lying there pitifully as a witness. Time turned everything meaningless except the art.
