Poem - Ozymandias Flashcards
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
An oxymoron directly contrasting Ozymandias’ power and what has now become of his statue
‘2 vast and trunkless legs of stone’🚶🏽
Why was Percy Shelley expelled from university?
For atheism. Because of this, his father disinherited him
What is the point of Ozymandias?
Ozymandias is the condemnation of leaders, monarchs or governments that believe themselves to be invincible
This poem is about how a magnificent statue of a powerful ancient king is…
“Sunk”, “shattered” and “lifeless”
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!
This poem is a sonnet but does not fit regular sonnet structure
Doesn’t have normal rhyme scheme or punctuation. It has irregular rhyme. The poem is written in iambic pentameter, which gives the poem some regularity.
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
The mighty and powerful should despair at the works of Ozymandias as they too will vanish over time and leave nothing but ruins of their greatness.
Nothing beside remains
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
Ozymandias is not just about the transience tyranny. It is also about…
The survival of art and language
When published, Ozymandias was not…
Met with critical acclaim, but is now part of popular culture
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.
