Ozymandias-Percy Bysshe Shelley Flashcards
Explain some context points of ‘Ozymandias’
.Written by Shelley in a collection in 1819, and was inspired by the recent unearthing of part of a large statue of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Rameses II
.The Egyptian Pharaohs like Rameses believed themselves to be Gods in mortal form and that their legacy would last forever
.On the base of the statue is written(translated) “King of Kings am I, Ozymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works”
Briefly describe what the poem is about
1) The narrator meets a traveler who tells him about a statue standing in the middle east of the desert
2) It’s a statue of a king who ruled over past civilisation. His face is proud and he arrogantly boasts about how powerful he is in an inscription on the statue’s base
3) However, the statue has fallen down and crumbled away so that only the ruins remain
Explain how Shelley was involved in the Romanticism movement
.Shelley was a ‘Romantic poet’- ‘Romanticism’ was a movement that had a big influence on art and literature in the late 1700s and early 1800s
.’Romantic’ poets believed in emotion rather than reason and tried to capture intense experiences in their work and particularly focused on the power of nature
.Shelley also disliked monarchies, absolute power, and the oppression of ordinary people. His radical views were inspired by the events of the French revolution, where the monarchy was overthrown
Explain the themes in ‘Ozymandias’
.Power and conflict-are the most obvious themes as Ozymandias is a powerful ruler who sees himself as ‘King of Kings’, perhaps a great warrior and one of the most powerful men in the world
.Nature-the poem is almost being ironic, pointing out that now all that remains is an arrogant boast of a ruined statue. Perhaps the poet feels sorry for him but most likely laughing at his expense considering Shelley’s radical views. Either way it looks at the inevitable downfall of all rulers and tyrants, and how nothing, not even power lasts forever
Explain the allegory of ‘Ozymandias’
.The statue is a poem broken and falling apart in the desert with nobody to care, which is an allegory of Ozymandias and every powerful man or woman, the idea that they will also drift away until they are just another grain of sand
Explain the structure of Ozymandias
.The narrator builds up an image of the statue by focusing on different parts of it in turn. The poem ends by describing the enormous desert, which helps to sum up the insignificance of the statue
.Written in a sonnet with loose iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter in pairs (iams,of sounds da-dum) with 5(pentameter) in a line making 10 syllables overall
.Sonnets were generally popular romantic or love poems, perhaps this being a love poem about Ozymandias, a joke about the ruler’s ego. Or to simply capture the romantic and exotic tone of a lost legend
.The rhyme scheme is irregular perhaps symbolic of the broken statue itself, no longer perfect
What are the feelings and attitudes of the poem?
.Pride- the ruler was proud of their achievements. He called on other rulers to admire what he did
.Arrogance- the inscription shows that the ruler believed that he was the most powerful ruler in the land. Nobody else could compete with him as he thought was better than those who he’d ruled
.Power- human civilisations and achievements are insignificant compared to the passing of time. Art has the power to preserve elements of human existence, but it is only temporary
‘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, he’s only heard about it. This emphasises how unimportant Ozymandias is now
‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone’
The statue is barely standing, the rest is ruined and missing. Suggesting that it is being eaten away by time and the desert, a futile struggle to survive when nobody is around to care
‘A shattered visage lies’
Shattered visage – broken face, it is unrecognisable, a statue to someone and we can no longer tell who, and has no purpose anymore. It’s ironic as even a powerful human can’t control the damaging effects of time
‘A sneer of cold command’
Suggests Ozymandias character as powerful and arrogant which ironic now as there’s nothing left. Furthermore, the sculptor understood the arrogance of the ruler
‘Ye mighty and despair’
The tone, as indicated by the exclamation mark, is strong and authoritative, this is ironic as nobody is around to listen to the message.
It is also ironic as he tells other rulers to ‘despair’ because of the size and grandeur of his ‘works’, but in fact they should despair because their power is temporary and ultimately unimportant like his
‘Of that colossal wreck’
The ruined statue shows how human achievements are insignificant compared to the passing of time. The statue has been worn down to nothing, the adjectives ‘colossal’ could be seen as a metaphor for the pharaohs ego
‘The lone and level sands stretch far away’
The alliteration of ‘lonely’ and ‘level’ emphasises the feeling of empty space in the surrounding desert. The desert is vast and survives for longer than the broken statue, emphasising the insignificance of the statue and of Ozymandias
Summarise the key points of Ozymandias
. The poem is an ironic memorial to the ego of ancient pharaoh
. The statue is an allegory for the eventual end of power that everyone must suffer especially the proud
. Power like the statue was lost to the signs which in turn represent time
