ozymandias

• who was ozymandias about and what did 'ozymandias' mean?

  it was the greek name for Ramesses II (pharoah of Egypt)

  it is an allegory to the futility of power
• what does the poem show?

  how power of nature overrules power of humans and arrogance/pride
• what kind of poem is ozymadias?

  sonnet
• what form is the poem?

  iamic pentameter
• what is the perspective?

  first person, omniscient speaker
• who does ozymandias critisise?

  King George III
• "a shatter'd visage"


  ironic - the king wanted his powerful image to be remembered, but the statue has decayed over time showing power of nature
• "wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command"


  continuous mocking, looking down on everyone, highlighting his sense of superiority, arrogance, cruelty and maliciousness
• what does enjambment show?

  how nature and time is ongoing
• the word "and" is repeated 15 times. why?


  show how nature and time is ongoing, keeps adding new things
• what method is this - "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" and what does it show


  sibilance

  quiet to reflect nature

  snake-like sound, evil
• "sneer of cold command"


  consonance

  plosive

  imperative
• "the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed"


  ambiguous, literal meaning or metaphorical meaning
• "pedestal"

  noun

  shows power over others

  superior to others
• "my name is ozymandias, king of kings"


  god-like, arrogant, mocking, pride (hubris)
• "look on my words"

  look = imperative, shows his power
• "nothing beside remains."


  caesura, shows end of his memory, how it hasn't and won't last forever

  shows power of nature and time
• "round the decay/ Of that colossol wreck"


  semantic field of destruction
• "boundless and bare"


  sibilance

  plosive alliteration mimics king, anger of others
• "the lone and level sands stretch far away"


  lone + colossal = assonance with the 'o'

  sibilance can mimic sound of wind
• how many narrators are there and what do they show?

  1st person omniscient narrator

  words of ozymandias

  author of inscription