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Shelley’s Poetry

For insight into how “Ozymandias” fits in with other key poetic works by Shelley, please consult this guide.

Wordsworth’s Poetry

Shelley belonged to the younger generation of English Romantic poets, which is the generation that rose to prominence as earlier poets such as William Wordsworth were settling into middle age. To get a sense of the key elements that both connect and distinguish these different generations, it’s worth investigating the work of Wordsworth more closely.

Coleridge’s Poetry

In addition to studying Wordsworth’s poetry, an appreciation of Shelley’s literary context would also benefit from an examination of the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Though Coleridge belonged to the same generation of Romantic poets as Wordsworth, his work arguably has more in common with Shelley’s. With particular regard to the orientalism of “Ozymandias,” it’s worth examining Coleridge’s great poem of the East, “Kubla Khan.”

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