Ozymandias Flashcards
“I met a traveller from an antique land”
Shelley frames the poem to make it clear the narrator hadn’t seen the statue. Emphasises unimportance on the statue now
“Vast,” “Trunkless,” “Stone,”
Emphasises size and stature but also shows the statue is incomplete
“Stand in the desert,”
Setting suggests an absence of life and vitality,”
“Sneer of cold command,”
sculptor understand arrogance of the ruler
“King of kings,” (biblical allusion)
Arrogant and powerful and it shows he sees himself as god like
“Shatter’d visage,”
Ironic as even a powerful human can’t control the damaging effects of time
“Look,”
Stressed syllable at the start of the line heightens his tone of command
“Lone and level,”
Emphasises feeling of empty space in the surrounding desert
A Petrarchan sonnet with a turning point at line 9. Doesn’t follow a regular rhyme scheme.
Shows his love for himself and reflects the way human power can be destroyed
Title ozymandias
Obscurity of name distances us from Rasmases II
Antique land
Adds to the sense of obscurity and distance
“Vast” “colossal” semantic field of enormity
Expresses the enormity of power he once had
“Shattered” “lifeless” “decay” “wreck” romantic field of complete destruction
His power is gone and never to return
Alliteration creates an echoic effect “lone and level” “boundless and bare”
To describe nature as almost limitless and eternal
“Trunkless” “half sunk”
Erosion and burial nature is reclaiming statue this shows nature power over mankind
