Shelley's poem reveals a shattered king in the desert, his proud inscription now a cosmic joke. In contrast, Lazarus's poem features a woman holding a torch at the harbor's edge, her words extending an open invitation. One monument serves as a warning about the hubris of power, while the other counters that arrogance, presenting power as a source of welcome rather than oppression.
When readers come across these two poems together, they confront a single question: what purpose should a monument serve? Shelley argues that monuments reveal the vanity of their creators, while Lazarus suggests that a monument can be redefined from within, with its meaning actively chosen rather than simply inherited. Together, "Ozymandias" and "The New Colossus" create a compelling juxtaposition of the political sonnet—one dismantling an empire, the other envisioning something new in its place.
The Reader's Atlas · Compare · Across the Atlantic
OzymandiasThe New Colossus
Put Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" (1818) alongside Emma Lazarus's "The New Colossus" (1883), and the contrast is striking: one poem depicts a statue that has crumbled and been forgotten, while the other presents a statue that has just been erected, promising much to the world.
Poets
Percy Bysshe Shelley / Emma Lazarus
Years
1883
Chapter
Across the Atlantic
§01 The thesis
Ozymandias & The New Colossus
A reader's case for putting these two side by side — what each carries, and what they argue when they sit on the same page.
§02 The dialectic axes
The two poems on four axes
Each axis isolates one specific vector — speaker, form, image, closing move — and reads the two poems against each other on that single dimension.
Axis
Poem A
Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poem B
The New Colossus
Emma Lazarus
01Speaker
Poem A · Ozymandias
In "Ozymandias," Shelley creates a three-layer structure: there's an unnamed "I" who encounters a traveler, who then shares the inscription of the king. Ozymandias's voice comes through two layers of distance, making his boast seem empty even before it's read.
Poem B · The New Colossus
In "The New Colossus," Lazarus eliminates all distance. The statue addresses the reader directly with the words — "Give me your tired, your poor" — and Lazarus presents that speech with minimal interference from herself. This creates a sense of immediacy, almost urgency.
02Form
Poem A · Ozymandias
Shelley employs a loose Petrarchan form featuring an irregular rhyme scheme (ABAB ACDCEDEFEF), which has sparked debate among scholars since its release. This slight lack of formal structure reflects the poem's subject, which also struggles to maintain cohesion.
Poem B · The New Colossus
Lazarus employs a consistent Petrarchan octave-sestet structure, with a clear turn at line 9 — "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" — marking the moment when the statue shifts from contrasting itself with the old world to speaking directly to the newcomers.
03Central image
Poem A · Ozymandias
The Ozymandias statue is marked by what’s absent: the body is missing, the face is partly buried, and the creations the king wanted us to admire have disappeared. This image reflects a collection of absences, while the pedestal ironically highlights the disconnect between ambition and reality.
Poem B · The New Colossus
The Statue of Liberty in Lazarus's poem is characterized by what it represents and conveys: a torch with a flame described as "imprisoned lightning," an outstretched hand, gentle eyes, and a lamp at the golden door. Each detail is dynamic and oriented outward — it symbolizes light shared, rather than power claimed.
04Closing move
Poem A · Ozymandias
Shelley concludes with stark deflation. Following the king's grand inscription, the poem offers just two words — "Nothing beside remains" — before zooming out to reveal a vast, empty desert. This ending serves as both a visual and rhetorical erasure.
Poem B · The New Colossus
Lazarus concludes with a heartfelt invitation. The last line — "I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" — is an exclamation, a gesture, a welcoming hand. While Shelley's ending leaves the scene barren, Lazarus's ending brims with the anticipation of future arrivals.
§03 Synthesis & departure
The shared ground and the divergence
Shared
Both poems are sonnets—fourteen lines with a central image and a concluding argument. They were both crafted as direct political statements rather than personal reflections: Shelley critiques tyranny and imperial arrogance, while Lazarus raises funds for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal and, more urgently, addresses the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe. A massive statue serves as the focal point in both works, and the statue itself acts as a speaker—Ozymandias's pedestal inscription is in the first person, and Lazarus gives the Statue of Liberty its own voice. Both poems also explore contrast: Shelley juxtaposes the king's boastful words with the desolation surrounding them, while Lazarus begins her poem by directly contrasting her giant with the Colossus of Rhodes. Formally, they both loosely adhere to the Petrarchan tradition, manipulating the rhyme scheme to fit their needs. Additionally, both have given us lines so memorable that they have transcended their original poems and become part of everyday language.
Where they diverge
The most striking difference lies in the emotional tone. Shelley's poem leans into silence and absence, ending with the haunting line, "the lone and level sands stretch far away," which leaves the image devoid of substance. In contrast, Lazarus's poem embraces arrival and sound, concluding with a lamp raised at "the golden door." One poem finishes in emptiness; the other culminates in an entrance.
The statues present a stark contrast in both posture and gender. Ozymandias is depicted as a broken king, male, with his face locked in "a sneer of cold command." The Mother of Exiles, on the other hand, is whole and female, her eyes characterized as "mild," reaching outward instead of inward. Shelley's statue addresses the mighty, challenging them with its decay, while Lazarus's statue speaks to the downtrodden, offering them refuge.
In terms of structure, Shelley employs a frame narrative—a speaker relaying a traveler's tale—which introduces distance and irony. Lazarus, however, communicates directly, using the statue's voice without any intermediary. The indirectness in Shelley serves a purpose; similarly, the directness in Lazarus is intentional.
§04 A reader's order of operations
Which to read first
If you found your way to this page via "Ozymandias," take a look at "The New Colossus" as its response. Shelley's poem illustrates what a monument becomes when it caters solely to its creator's vanity; on the other hand, Lazarus's work reveals what a monument can signify when it reaches outwards. The two poems engage in a true dialogue, and it's likely that Lazarus was familiar with Shelley's piece when crafting her own.
If you came here through "The New Colossus," check out "Ozymandias" to grasp the tradition Lazarus was challenging. Her opening line — "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame" — directly rejects the kind of monument Shelley critiqued sixty-five years prior.
§05 Reader's questions
On Ozymandias vs The New Colossus, frequently asked
Answer
Yes, often — particularly in high school and introductory college courses that discuss the political sonnet or the concept of monuments and power. This pairing is so neat that it's no wonder teachers gravitate toward it.
Answer
Shelley's "Ozymandias" appeared in January 1818 in *The Examiner*, a journal edited by Leigh Hunt. Sixty-five years later, in 1883, Lazarus penned "The New Colossus" as a contribution to raise funds for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal.
Answer
From "Ozymandias," we find the inscription: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" From "The New Colossus," the statue offers this welcome: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to be free."
Answer
Yes. Ozymandias is the Greek name for Ramesses II, the Egyptian pharaoh who reigned from about 1279 to 1213 BCE and was known for constructing many monuments in his honor. Shelley's poem was partly inspired by a large fragment of a statue of Ramesses II that had recently been brought to the British Museum.
Answer
There’s no clear documentary proof that she was thinking of "Ozymandias," but by the 1880s, Shelley was well-known in American literary circles. The opening of "The New Colossus," which directly turns away from the conquering-colossus idea, aligns so well with Shelley's poem that it seems like a deliberate connection.
Answer
A bronze plaque with the complete text of the poem was placed inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1903, twenty years after Lazarus wrote it. It's still there today.
Answer
Both employ a generally Petrarchan structure, but neither adheres to it rigidly. Shelley's rhyme scheme is sufficiently irregular that critics continue to debate its classification. Lazarus's scheme is more aligned with the typical octave-sestet format, featuring a distinct turn at line 9.
§06 More from this chapter
British inheritance, American answer
7 comparisons in this chapter
Emma LazarusvsEmma Lazarus
The New Colossusagainst1492
Robert BurnsvsRobert Frost
To a MouseagainstMending Wall
Robert BurnsvsWilliam Wordsworth
Auld Lang SyneagainstTintern Abbey
Alfred, Lord TennysonvsW. B. Yeats
UlyssesagainstThe Lake Isle of Innisfree
William Ernest HenleyvsRudyard Kipling
InvictusagainstRecessional
Edgar Allan PoevsAlfred Noyes