Ozymandias

• Context for Ozymandias:

  • Poem written by romantic poet Percy Shelly as part of a sonnet writing competition
  • The statue was of Egyptian Pharaoh Ozymandias - regarded as the greatest most powerful Pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire
  • Shelly had radical political beliefs - critises tyrants who believe they are invincible
  • The poem can be seen as a criticism to King George the third, who was the king at the time the poem was written
• Structure for Ozymandias:

  • The poem is written in a sonnet but mixes more than one style of sonnet finishing with a new form - suggests everything must give way to the new - power doesn't last forever
• 1st quote: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert"

  • Broken statue symbolic of broken power of the once great Pharaoh
  • It is now an insulting memory of the leader
  • The adjective "trunkless" emphasises only the legs and face remain this is symbolic of the inhuman dictator Ozymandias was
  • The statue found in the dessert, is abandoned and forgotten reinforcing the message that power is ephemeral and does not last
• 3rd quote: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

  • The imperative verb "look" is an order for other kings to look on but for a modern ruler the "despair" is the realisation that power does not last forever
  • These words are an egotistical (cocky) boastful warning
  • The pharaoh believed the statue represented his immortality and lasting influence, but ironically his legacy now remains in ruins
• 2nd quote: "Sneer of cold command"

  • "Sneer" presents an image of a cruel dictator
  • The alliteration in the "cold command" emphasises this cruelty
  • It could also imply that whilst the pharaoh's power and legacy are broken, the skill of the sculptor, the artist, survives
• 4th quote: "Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck"

  • "Nothing" and "decay" reinforce that all that is left is crumbling, decaying stone
  • The adjective "colossal" symbolises the power of the once great leader and could suggest that even the mightiest will inevitably fall from power
• last quote: "The lone and level sands stretch far away"

  • The alliteration of the "lone" "level" "sands" "stretch" emphasises the isolated, abandoned landscape as the statue is all but forgotten. The sand symbolises that eventually everything turns to dust and no one is immortal