Poem - Ozymandias Flashcards
Sonnet structures
Problem
Solves problem
Solution to problem
Poets last longer than
Monarchs
Mocked has multiple meanings
Mocking of Ozymandias
Sculptor mocked up the statue
An oxymoron directly contrasting Ozymandias’ power and what has now become of his statue
‘2 vast and trunkless legs of stone’🚶🏽
Visage
Synecdoche for the whole statue
The king is portrayed as an arrogant and heartless ruler
Frown / And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
The king is shown to be hubristic
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Ozymandias was used in an episode in the last series of one of the best TV shows ever
Breaking Bad (Rise and fall of Walter White). Walter reads it whilst looking out over the New Mexico desert.
What does the mixture of patriarchian and modern sonnet structure show?
Power of patriacharn gives way to modern sonnet, like in real life.
The first person narrator ‘met a traveller’ what effect does this give on the reader?
This immediately diminishes Ozymandias’ power as the whole point of his statue was that all would know and fear hime however he has now been reduced to a second hand account
Shelley was a radical thinker who lived in a period when the British government were fearful of revolution and took oppressive measures against radicalism. How is Ozymandias related to this?
Ozymandias is Shelley’s indictment of authority that declares itself to be all powerful
The final rhyme in the poem in lines 12 and 14 means that the poem ends with a feeling of mystery and emptiness
decay / away
When published, Ozymandias was not…
Met with critical acclaim, but is now part of popular culture
Cold command
Alliteration of c is important because c is an aggressive harsh sound
Why was Percy Shelley expelled from university?
For atheism. Because of this, his father disinherited him
