Ozymandias Flashcards
There are how many speakers in Ozymandias?
3 voices: the ‘I’ voice, the traveller who tells the story and Ozymandias himself
How could you argue that there is a 4th voice in Ozymandias?
Arguably the voice/perspective of the sculptor, ‘who read those passions [Ozymandias’ feelings/nature] well’ comes through in his work: the ‘wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command.’
What is the impact of the layers of voices that reach back to ancient history?
They make Ozymandias seem even more remote (and therefore more diminished)
Imagery: what is the central symbol of the poem?
The ruined statue of Ozymandias
What is surreal about the way the statue is depicted?
The massive legs are ‘trunkless’ [without a body], and the head is ‘half-sunk’ in the sand
Which words with connotations of ruin does Shelley use to describe the statue?
The oxymoronic phrase, ‘round the decay of that colossal wreck’
How does the imagery of nature override the image of [ruined] political and imperial power?
The alliterative phrases, ‘boundless and bare’ and ‘lone and level’ establish nature as force that stands in opposition to hierarchy and oppression
How does Shelley use ironic juxtaposition in the poem to undermine Ozymandias’s statue (as a symbol of imperial power)?
The structural irony in the poem, which has the awe-inspiring inscription [‘King of Kings…etc’] is followed by the bathetic line, ‘nothing beside remains.’
At the end of the poem, nature is established as a positive force, outlasting temporal, human power in which lines?
‘Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.’
