Ozymandias

• Who wrote ozymandias 


  Percy shelley
• "a shattered visage"
• " a sneer of cold command "
• " the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed "
• " Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!"
• "a shattered visage"

  • sibilance: imitates the sound of something sinking in the sand.

  • statue of pharaoh introduced through violent images of destruction and desolation.

  - damaged by nature and time; broken pieces emphasized through separate lines
• " sneer of cold command"

  • "sneer" : arrogance leads to downfall (hubris, tyrannical, ruthless, autocratic.)

  • harsh percussive alliteration: the pharaohs iron rule

  • broken rhyme scheme: broken state?

  •"command": time has broken his command
• "hand that mocked them"

  • double meaning:

  - laugh at or tease

  - draft or practice : suggests the everlasting skill of the sculpture. Undermines ozymandias.
• Who was ozymandias?


  A Egyptian pharaoh
• "the heart that fed"

  • "heart" could be ozymandias' or the sculptors
• "look on my works, Ye Mighty and despair"

  • "works" -the empire? Or the sculpture?

  • uses imperative language- pharaohs command? Or sculptors?

  • could be sculptor mocking Ozymandias for his fallen empire but the standing sculpture
• "Ye Mighty and despair"

  • abuse of power

  • inscription: hubristic and vainglorious.

  - also ironic: volta (turning point) because ozymandias loses his empire but the inscription is a reminder of his arrogance, hubris and vanity.
• Shelly uses a frame narrative: layers of history, narrative and art to obscure ozymandias and minimize his power.
• It's a sonnet but instead of being about romantic love it's about ozymandias' narcissistic self love.