Ozymandias Flashcards
Form of Ozymandias
Sonnet
I met…
a traveller from an antique land
Stand in the…
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half-sunk…
Half-sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
My name is…
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Of that…
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone…
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
How is a sonnet constructed?
Most sonnets break into two parts: an ‘octet’ (the first eight lines) and a ‘sextet’ (the last six lines), with the second part commenting on the first.
Context of Ozymandias
Ozymandias is the greek name for the Egyptian Pharoah Ramesses II. Interest in Ancient Egpytian history was fashionable in the period and the importation of statues to British and French museums was beginning in earnest.
vast (definition)
vast (adjective) – huge
trunkless (definition)
trunkless (adjective) – lacking a body (a trunk)
visage (definition)
visage (concrete noun) – a face
sneer (definition)
sneer (concrete noun) – a disdainful facial expression
sculptor (definition)
sculptor (common noun) – an artist who uses stone/clay to create statues and models
pedestal (definition)
pedestal (concrete noun) – the base on which a statue is mounted
