Oxymandias

Question 1

Context of poem

Answer 1

Not all of Ramses II was uncovered.

Inspiration: Shelley heard that an explorer had retrieved the statue from the desert.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was a romantic poet, only became famous after his death.

Question 2

Form

Answer 2

Does not follow a regular sonnet rhyme scheme

Reflects the way that human power and structures can be destroyed

Written in iambic pentameter - often disrupted

Sonnet structure

Question 3

structure

Answer 3

A second-hand account, distancing the reader further from the dead king

The narrator builds an image of the statue by focusing on different parts

The poem ends by describing the enormous desert, summing up the statue’s insignificance

Question 4

summary of poem

Answer 4

The narrator meets a traveller who tells him about the statue in the middle of the desert

A statue of a previous king: his face is proud, and he boasts about his power in the inscription at the base

The statue has fallen down, and only the ruins remain

Question 5

Mood

Answer 5

Pride

Arrogance

Power - power to preserve elements of human excistence byt only temporarily

Question 6

Language

Answer 6

agressive tone from the tyrannical ruler

powerful language

natures power

Question 7

Key quotes

Answer 7

Half sunk a shattered visage lies
- Shows the power of time and nature

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works
- Uses an imperative tone to heighten the commanding nature
- Repetition emphasizes his supposed power
- Ironic: Even a powerful human cannot control the damaging effects of time

The lone and level sands stretch far away
- Emphasizes the insignificance of Ozymandias
- Alliteration emphasizes the feeling of emptiness and loneliness
- The desert is vast and survives longer than the broken statue.