Ozymandias

• • the poem presents fleeting nature of human power and how it is an illusion
• structure:

  • has a sonnet form of 14 lines
  • poem does not fit same rhyme schem of sonnet, so is not a true sonnet
  • sonnets convey love
  • Ozymandias' love for power is not true love
• "i met a traveller from an antique land"

  • presents Romantic views of glorification of past
  • looks to past to learn lessons as rejection of progress
• "two vast and trunkless legs"

  • anonymity
  • desperation to be remembered - is a futile quest
  • power of constructs like monarchy is false
  • they can never hold power forever
  • mortal like rest of humanity
• "round the decay. nothing beside remains"

  • links to natural process of death
  • shows how he can never make himself immortal
• "king of kings"

  • Biblical allusion to make himself seem Godlike
• "lone and level sands stretch far away"

  • alliteration presents longing sound - poem returns to nature by end
  • nature is where all humans return to at death
  • emphasises how human power is fleeting
• "lone and level sands stretch far away"

  • deification of nature
  • juxtaposes king who could not immortalise himself in statue
  • human power is construct which cannot compare to power of nature
• • statue is extended metaphor for fleeting nature of human power
  • symbolises futlity of trying to hold onto power never made for mankind
  • nature will always prevail
• "look on my works, ye mighty, and despair"

  • irony to critique desperation to hold onto fleeting pwer