Abrams, MH "Ozymandias" The Norton Anthology of English Literature. General Editor Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. p. 1794. Printed. In the poem “Ozymandias,” the speaker mentions his encounter with a traveler who tells a story of an old broken stature of a king in the middle of the desert. Although the stature is badly damaged, his sneering face is still visible and there is an inscription that encourages those passing by to admire his mighty works. Ironically, there are no powerful works to admire, only a barren and limitless desert. Shelley tells this ironic story of King Ozymandias to show that things change and nothing lasts forever. This source is considered unbiased and reliable because it comes directly from a literature book. It is very different from other sources because it states the poem instead of going into detail about the meaning of the poem. This would be a very useful source for anyone working on anything. One of the main elements of figurative language depicted in the poem is that of irony (Edwards 2). The king wanted his statue to be built so that everyone who saw it in future generations could see how powerful he was and all the great things he created, but in reality the statue ended up being broken and abandoned in the center of the desert with nothing around. It is also ironic that few people pass by the statue, but even when someone encounters it, they view Ozymandias negatively and view him as a harsh ruler who did not care about the well-being of his people because of the cold. sneering facial expression that the sculptor created on the statue. Another form of figurative language in this poem is imagery. The visually descriptive manner in which Shelley wrote the poem "Ozymandias" allows the reader to imagine in their mind what the statue must have looked like.