An atmosphere of degeneration and despair is created in this poem. How does the poet achieve this?

Transience is a major theme in "Ozymandias." He is obsessed with the condition of the statue. Thus, something in him acknowledges that everything succumbs to the ravages of time...... people, statues, buildings, governments...... all with crumble. Time waits for no one. So we see that his despair encompasses far more than the physical, as the ruler comes to parallel the statue with his own accomplishments and power, and the statue becomes a symbol of his own end.