Ozymandias by Percy Shelley

Question 1

What themes are present in Ozymandias?

Answer 1

• Power of man
• Power of nature
• Abuse of power
• Power is transient
• Power of memory/identity
• Man vs nature

Question 2

Context for Ozymandias:

Answer 2

• Shelley was a poet of the romantic period (late 1700s - early 1800s)
• Romantic poets were interested in emotion and the power of nature
• Shelley disliked the idea of monarchy and the oppression of ordinary people
• He had been inspired by the french revolution when the French monarchy was overthrown

Question 3

Form and Structure for Ozymandias:

Answer 3

• Sonnet (14 lines) - mocks Ozymandias making it look like that he is in love with himself
• Unconventional structure - the structure is normal until the volta at line 9 - reflects how human structures can be destroyed or decayed
• Iambic pentameter rhyme scheme is disrupted/decayed and it shows how his rule was quite rigid and unflexible power structure/tyranny
• The first 8 lines of the sonnet is the statue being described in parts to show its destruction
• The final 2 lines shows the huge and immortal desert - is described to emphasise the human power and hubris
• Frame narrative - one person’s perspective of another person’s perspective - unreliable source as no one remembers Ozymandias, different hierachies would think differently.

Question 4

Which poems can you compare Ozymandias to?

Answer 4

• The Prelude
• My Last Duchess
• Kamikaze
• Tissue

Question 5

“Ozymandias”

Answer 5

• “Ozy” comes from the Greek “Ozium”, meaning “to breathe”.
• “Mandias” comes from the Greek “mandate”, meaning “to rule”.
• The title suggests power and control

Question 6

“I met a traveller”

Answer 6

• Shelley begins the poem by detaching himself from the story being told. He wants to immediately make the point “this is not an open criticism of the British monarchy”.
• However, the poem is clearly a thinly veiled attack as the statue is of a monarch.
• Shelley frames the poem as a story to make it clear that the narrator hasn’t seen the statue himself, he’s only heard about it. This emphasises how unimporant Ozymandias is now.

Question 7

“Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, // And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command”.

Answer 7

• Semantic field of negative language - makes it clear that this poem is an attack and not a praising of the powerful
• The alliterative repetition of the harsh “c” sounds reflects the harsh nature of Ozymandias
• The adjective ‘cold’ shows that his authority is over as it gives us a sense of death and unfamiliarity, showing how his commands are no longer enforced and are dead to the world.
• “Cold” contrasts with the noun ‘desert’ showing that this land is no longer his and he is a foreign being with his ‘cold command’, as the desert remains as it is. He no longer has power over his surroundings and his authority is now futile.
• The noun “command” suggests people below him in ranking feared him and as a result made him look more superior
• Shelley celebrated nature and its power

Question 8

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings”.

Answer 8

• Biblical reference shows that Ozymandias thinks of himself as God-like as “king of kings” was how God was described in the bible.
• Shows his hubris as he challenged God and other rulers
• The repetition of “kings” suggests his power showing that Shelley is critisizing his hubris as Shelley wanted to promote the transience and futility of power.

Question 9

“Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare”

Answer 9

• Alliteration is used to emphasise the emptiness - the desert is vast and suvives far longer than the broken statue, emphasising the insignificance of the statue and of Ozymandias
• “Wreck” is capitalised just like the words on Ozymandias’ statue showing the futility of power
• The noun “Wreck” has connotations of abandonment and destruction and this is referring to the statue showing the reader that power is futile

Question 10

“The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Answer 10

• The desert outlives the statue
• left powerless and there’s no hierachy anymore as they are now “level” suggesting that his power was broken
• This is written in iambic pentameter showing how his rule was quite rigid and had an unflexible power structure
• The sibilance suggests that this was inevitably going to happen because the nature is more powerful than man