Ozymandias Flashcards
Poet?
Percy Bysshe Shelley
About?
The narrator meets a traveller who tells him about a statue in the middle of the desert. The statue of a king, the statue has fallen and crumbled so only ruins remain.
Q - First line, degrades the statues importance
‘I met a traveller from an antique land’
Q - Emphasises the statues power and stature but shows the statue is incomplete
‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone’
Q - Absence of life
‘Stand in the desert’
Q - Ozymandias’ arrogance/ Poor ruler
‘Sneer of cold command’
Who is Ozymandias?
King Ramesses II, ancient ruler of Egypt
Q - Hyperbole, arrogance
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:’
Q - Human achievement is insignificant to time
‘the decay of that colossal wreck,’
Form:
- Sonnet
- However doesn’t conform to a regular rhyme scheme
Structure:
- Emphasises the insignificance of the statue through the enormous desert
