Poetry - Quotes Analysis

Question 1

“Nothing besides remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare”

Answer 1

• Juxtaposition of “colossal” and “wreck” emphasises the contrast between his (Ozymandias) former power and his current state
• Caesura after “remains” highlights out Ozymandias’s power has come to an end.

Question 2

“Vast and trunkless legs of stone”

Answer 2

• Metaphor of political power being ruined and only being temporary
  it represents what Ozymandias built his empire upon back then and what it has fallen to now - trunkless legs of stone

Question 3

“Look on my works, ye mighty and despair!”

Answer 3

• Irony - he tells people to be in despair because of the size of his “works” but in fact they should be in despair because their power is temporary. There is nothing left to look t except from the broken statue