ozymandias Flashcards
who wrote the poem?
Percy Bysshe Shelley
what are the main themes?
- nature
- passage of time
- negative emotions
- change and transformations
- power
what are the possible links?
- hawk roosting (power)
- london (power)
- to autumn (nature and time)
- mametz wood (nature and time)
what is the poem about?
the narrator meets a traveller who tells him about a statue standing in the middle of the desert, it’s the statue a king (Ramesses II) who ruled over a past civilisation. the statue has crumbled away so only the ruins remain, can be seen as a warning to tyrants that death and time will overcome them
what are the main feeling and attitudes of the poem?
- pride
- arrogance
- power
what is the form of the poem?
it is a sonnet, with a turning point (volta) at line 9, like a petrarchan sonnet. it uses iambic pentameter but this is often disrupted
what is the rhyme scheme and why?
it doesn’t follow the regular rhyme scheme for a sonnet which shows the unbalance and uncertainty, or perhaps reflects the way that human power and structures can be destroyed
what is the structure of the poem?
one stanza, 14-lines (sonnet)
what can the ruined statue be seen as a symbol for?
for the temporary nature of political power or human achievement
what does Shelley’s use of irony do?
it reflects his hatred of oppression and his belief that it is possible to overturn social and political order
what sort of language is used in the poem?
- language of power
- angry language
- irony
what does the fact that nature and time have ruined the statue show?
it shows that ultimately, nature and time have more power than anything else
what does the lack of stanzas do?
makes it seem like a long story being told by travellers
why is the title ‘Ozymandias’?
refers to Ramesses II (an egyptian pharaoh who was known for being a tyrant
what are the first three lines?
I met a traveller from an antique land / Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Stand in the desert … Near them, on the sand,
what are the annotations of ‘I met a traveller from an antique land’?
Shelley frames the poem as a story to make it clear that the narrator hasn’t even seen the statue himself, which emphasises how unimportant Ozymandias is now
what are the annotations of ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone’?
- emphasises size and stature but also shows the statue is incomplete
- shows his power may have been huge but there was no substance to it, it soon faded away
what are the annotations of ‘stand in the desert .. Near them, on the sand’?
- setting suggests an absence of life and vitality
- nouns show the isolation of the statue, perhaps a civilisation has been destroyed?
what are the second group of three lines? (after ‘near them, on the sand, / …)
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, / And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, / Tell that its sculptor well those passions read’
what are the annotations of ‘sunk, a shattered visage’?
- verbs show nature has eroded and destroyed this symbol of human power, which suggests the natural environment will always outlas any human settlement, reminding us of our own mortality; even the most powerful kings will turn to dust
- ironic, even a powerful human can’t escape the effects of time
- symbolic of a beheading
what are the annotations of ‘wrinkled lip’?
give an evil impression of ozymandias as a ruler
what are the annotations of ‘sneer of cold command’?
the sculptor understood the arrogance of the ruler, harsh sounds ‘c’
what are the third group of three lines? (after ‘well those passions read / …’)
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, / The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed: / And on the pedestal these words appear:
what are the annotations of ‘ which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things’?
having ‘survive’ and ‘lifeless’ on the same line hints at how art can outlast human power, but the ruined statue shows that ultimately art can’t immortalise power
