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Percy Bysshe ShelleyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
“Kubla Khan” by Samuel Coleridge (1816)
“Ozymandias” is often compared to “Kubla Khan,” Samuel Coleridge’s 1816 Romantic poem loosely based on the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan. While Shelley establishes his powerful ruler, Ozymandias, as the foil of art and poetry, Coleridge equates Kubla Khan’s kingdom, his “stately pleasure-dome,” with the power of artistic imagination.
“England in 1819” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1839)
“England in 1819,” another sonnet by Shelley, articulates with real world examples his metaphorical criticisms of tyranny in “Ozymandias.” Shelley takes the British system of government to task, particularly its aging monarch George, whom he describes as “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King.”
“On a Stupendous Leg of Granite” by Horace Smith (1818)
While it has achieved none of the fame or renown of “Ozymandias,” it is still a worthwhile exercise to read “On a Stupendous Leg of Granite,” Horace Smith’s entry in his and Shelley’s 1818 sonnet contest. Smith’s poem lacks the metaphorical nuance of “Ozymandias” but more directly connects the topic to contemporary British affairs. He imagines a similar scenario, in which a future traveler marvels at the ruins of London.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
A Defence of Poetry
A Defence of Poetry
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Adonais
Adonais
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude
Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mutability
Mutability
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Ode to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Prometheus Unbound
Prometheus Unbound
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Queen Mab
Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Masque of Anarchy
The Masque of Anarchy
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Triumph of Life
The Triumph of Life
Percy Bysshe Shelley
To a Skylark
To a Skylark
Percy Bysshe Shelley