Ozymandias

Question 1

Half sunk, shattered visage lies

Answer 1

Hated, infamous

Question 2

Despair!

Answer 2

Contemptuous
Exclamatory
Uncaring

Question 3

Form

Answer 3

Petrarchan Sonnet -> (volta in line 9) ironic, commemorates the loss of a tyrannical ruler. Could allude to his arrogance? Or the joy over his death?

Caesura and enjambement used frequently, gives poem a disjointed rhythm (symbolises the destroyed statue and the temporary nature of power)

Irregular rhyme scheme (not typical of a sonnet) shows the temperamental nature of Ozymandias’ power, solidifies the temporary nature of power, returns with his demise -> symbolises the natural order returning after his tyranny

Second-hand account shows distance - humanity has distanced from it, highlights his fall from Grace as he is no longer relevant

Iambic pentameter is often disrupted

Question 4

Language

Answer 4

Semantic field of destruction and decay

Question 5

half sunk, a shattered visage lies,

Answer 5

Hated, infamous

Ironic - even a powerful human can’t control the effect on time

Question 6

wrinkled lip, a sneer of cold command

Answer 6

Facial imagery shows his contempt

Alliteration shows his temperamentality

Question 7

King of kings

Answer 7

Repetition shows vanity and hubris
Does not fit into the rhyme scheme ; volta

The fact that it’s the volta could symbolise that was the turning point in Ozymandias’ life - when he became so hubristic he believed himself invincible

Question 8

Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair!

Answer 8

imperative shows arrogance- commanding god. Stressed first syllable emphasises this

Personal pronoun - pride

Capital m - biblical allusion - alludes to his disruption of nature and his attempted deification. Ultimate hubris - he believe is more powerful than god

Exclamatory phrase- contemptuous and uncaring

Question 9

Colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands

Answer 9

Juxtaposition - illustrates his monumental fall from Grace

Plosives are reminiscent of his imperative command, but are ironic as they emphasise decay and barren nature of the land

Alliteration shows time passing and how nature prevails

Human achievements are insignificant compared to the passing of time

Question 10

Context

Answer 10

Romantic poet -> Victorian era -> obsession with antiques and distant lands

Idealism, time, nature, the past

Attempt to deify Ozymandias through statue
Egyptian?

Use of irony connotes Shelley’s radical nature and disgust towards oppression and monachies of absolute power and belief in overturning social and political order. He was inspired by the French Revolution

Question 11

Vast and trunkless legs of stone

Answer 11

Ironic - attempt to make it impressive but it’s incomplete state

Question 12

Mocked

Answer 12

Literally make a likeness

Ridicule -> he was hated

Question 13

Survive

Lifeless

Answer 13

Juxtaposition
Art can outlast human power, but art can’t immortalise power
Ozymandias’ desperation for recognition lives on respire his irrelevancy -irony

Question 14

“Antique land’

Answer 14

Emphasis time passed
Antiques are normally valuable - there is a valuable lesson about power and arrogance to be learned here

Vague description of land alludes to the inherent arrogance that accompanies power

Question 15

Nothing beside remains.

Answer 15

Immediate juxtaposition
Ironyyyy
He’s so dumb

Question 16

Structure

Answer 16

Cyclical fluctuations between descriptions of Ozymandias as powerful then powerless - ore St’s the moral that power is temporary and that nature is more powerful than humanity’s influence

Ending the poem by describing the vastness of the desert after describe the minutiae of the statue emphasise humanity’s irrelevance compared to nature

Framed as a story exemplifies Ozymandias’ irrelevance