Ozymandias analysis

• Context

  Inspired by statue of Ramasses II and written as part of a competition between friends

  lots of archeological discoveries at the time in Egypt

  George III on throne - tyrannical and empire building

  Radical in political views

  Atheist

  Eton and oxford - expelled from oxford
• late romantic poet - poem is very anti-establishment and pro nature / time undermining exposure and political power and having more political power
• Structure

  sonnet - shows Ozymandias love of political power

  conventional sonnet structure and iambic pentameter but own rhyme scheme
• ‘I met a traveller’

  begins with unnamed speaker giving an anecdote

  speaker

  speaker + storyteller do not appear again - creates an extra layer of mediation between us and Ozymandias - emphasises how time has diminished and length of time since he held any power
• ‘antique land’

  aged

  shows passage of time - long time since he had power
• ‘who said’

  conveying story adds more distance
• ‘two vast and trunkless legs of stone’

  mysterious - whose - shows irrelevance of him nowadays

  amputated / fallen away - violent and undignified

  only legs - undermines power

  sibilance - swish of sand and time destroying all he built

  shows the destructive power of time
• ‘in the desert…’

  Ellipsis mimics break

  Mocks hubristic nature of Ozymandias as it’s destroyed
• ‘had sunk, a shattered visage lies’

  rendered even less - emphasises destructive nature of time

  face shattered - belittles Ozymandias and shows power of time and transience of political power
• ‘sneer of cold command’

  arrogance undermined by time

  harsh constonance

  patronising / demeaning by time
• ‘sculptor well those passions read’

  3rd mediator

  sculptor made to seem active and powerful

  understood ramasses
• which yet survive

  adverb ‘yet‘ enforces transience of art and power of time to overtake all
• ‘the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed’

  Two interpretations

  • ramasses controlling + mocking people and feeding off power like a parasite
  • or sculptor that used his hand to mock ramasses
• ‘my name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my words, ye Mighty and despair’

  rhetorically powerful and helped by thumping rhythm

  hubristic, elevating himself

  sense of fear and awe undermined by time

  sculptor may be mocking
• ‘nothing besides remains’

  juxtaposed to hubristic statement - forgotten, time annihilates

  he has been undermined by time washing away his empire
• ’boundless and bare the lone and level sand stretched away’

  nature has no confines but political power and empire are so strained by time - ‘boundless’

  elongated vowel sound mimics vast desert

  big vast desert and only a small part of it - time and nature swept away

  represents natures victory over culture and time wiping out humanity and history
• Shelley reveals the shattered image bit by bit - ‘legs’ , ‘visage’, ‘pedestal’ - mimics how time has reduced him to fragments, effect is cinematic
• conveys transience of political power - time will take all