English poetry

• Romanticism is a literary movement, during 1785-1832

  characterised by:

  • exaggerated emotions as a reaction to enlightenment era
  • reverence for natural world -> sumlimity
  • idealised simple rural lifestyle -> pastoral idyll
  • imagination and innocence
  • reason and rationality as an oppressive force
• The Romantics were influenced by the French Revolution (1789) which was an uprising against monarchy and aristocracy.
• Ozymandias storyline summary:

  A traveller talking about the statue of Ozymandias which is deteriorated. It doesn't show his powerful legacy but shows his weakness and foolishness- applies to all political leaders
• Ozymandias: political power:

  • political power is shown as the weakest - ephemeral
  • "sneer of cold command"->shows his hubristic and arrogant qualities, thinks he's a powerful figure people fear, yet actually shows he has no power over his legacy (sculptor has this power over him)
  • "look on my works" and "king of kings"-> shows his narcissism and faith in the idea that political power will last.
  • political power is not timeless, he lost his empire, good legacy and more
• meaning of OZYMANDIAS:

  The speaker in the poem describes the transience of power: a giant ruined statue in the middle of the desert has no role left in the present, even though its inscription still proclaims omnipotence.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley: '‘I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . .”’'
• ‘Ozymandias’

  • Meter: Iambic pentameter
  • Rhyme scheme: ABABACDCEDEFEF
  • Literary device: Frame narrative
  • Poetic device: Alliteration, enjambment
• ‘Ozymandias’ key themes

  • Mortality and passage of time
  • The transience of power
• ‘Ozymandias’ meaning

  The speaker describes the transience of power through a giant ruined statue in the desert
• Shelley was fascinated by the idea of Ramses II and the statue discovered in Egypt
• ‘Ozymandias’ describes a giant ruined statue in the desert, symbolizing the transience of power
• Shelley's poem ‘Ozymandias’ features a traveller describing the remains of a statue in the desert
• 'Ozymandias'

  • Structured as a Petrarchan Sonnet
  • Contains 14 lines broken up into an octet (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines)
  • Introduces a 'volta' or turning point
  • Uses the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet but follows the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet
• 'Ozymandias'

  • Uses a frame narrative
  • Three narrators: Shelley, the narrator who opens the poem, the traveller who describes the remains of the statue, and Ozymandias through the inscription
  • Includes enjambment to continue ideas from one line to the next
  • Utilizes alliteration for emphasis and dramatic effect
• 'Ozymandias'

  • Themes of mortality and the passage of time are key
  • Reflects on the transient nature of power and status
  • Highlights the futility of pride and boasts in the face of time's passage
• Despite the immense power Ozymandias once had, all that remains of him now is a broken statue in the vast and empty desert
• Shelley seems to suggest that pride and status hold little value as time will overtake all, making the pharaoh's boastful words sound hollow and vain
• Shelley's poem 'Ozymandias' also has a political undertone
• ‘Ozymandias’ means that time changes all
• The main message of ‘Ozymandias’ is that power is never absolute or eternal
• Shelley's poem 'Ozymandias' has a political undercurrent, expressing disapproval of royalty
• The Emigrée:

  ”I am branded by an impression of sunlight”

  metaphorically showing the intense positive connotations she has to her homeland

  Nothing will change the way she sees it
• The Emigrée:

  ”my memory of it is sunlight clear”

  “it tastes of sunlight”

  “evidence of the sunlight”

  motif of light shows the positive associations to her homeland
• Th Emigrée:

  ”the worst news cannot break my original view”

  she is branded with her last memories of home, not even political power or media will change how she sees her home

  her impression contrasts the reality
• The Emigrée:

  ”the bright, filled paperweight”

  metaphor to describe her view on her country, it becomes something physical that grounds her

  her ideas will not change easily
• The Emigrée:

  ”Like a hollow doll opens and spills grammar”

  ”soon I should have every molecule of it”

  talking about her mother toungue,metaphorically filling up her doll with her native language as if she’s trying to hold onto anything that ties her with home

  she enjoys speaking her language
• The Emigrée :

  ”But my city comes to me in its own white plane”

  although she has no way back, she stills feels closely connected with her home, mentally there
• The Emigrée:

  ”frontiers rise between us”

  division/ barrier between her and her home is metaphorically growing bigger due to the conflict
• The Emigrée:

  “the city of walls”

  ”the accuse me being dark in their free city”

  in the new country she feels alienated and segregated

  sense of not belonging, seen as darkness although she is defined in light
• The Emigrée:

  exploring the secondary effects of war

  a generalised pov of a refugee

  uses a dramatic monologue