Ozymandias

• An engraving at the foot of the statue read "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
• The face of the statue, despite being shattered, had a nasty and arrogant look
• The statue, once part of a vast empire, was now crumbled, broken, and isolated in the lonely desert
• The statue depicted in the poem had two huge stone legs standing without a body, with the head partially sunk into the ground
• In "Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley, the narrator meets a traveler who describes a statue he saw in the desert
• Romantic poetry was a poetic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries
• Shelley criticized the monarchy and religion in his writings, as reflected in "Ozymandias"
• One key convention of Romantic poetry, as seen in "Ozymandias," is the dislike of imposed control by those in power
• Percy Shelley was one of the Romantic poets, along with William Blake and William Wordsworth
• "Ozymandias" is a sonnet, a form of love poetry that originated in 13th-century Italy
• The poem "Ozymandias" conveys the message that power is transitory and does not last forever
• The structure of "Ozymandias" includes elements of both Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet forms
• The rhyme scheme in "Ozymandias" does not strictly adhere to either the Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnet models
• Power is transitory, changing over time, reflected in the changing rhyme scheme of the poem
• The poem's rhyme scheme changes throughout, adapting and lacking consistency
• The use of biblical language in the poem criticizes religion, suggesting the power of the church will crumble
• The poem may serve as a warning to King George III about the transitory nature of power
• The poem criticizes leaders like Ozymandias who impose control and are aggressive and oppressive
• The poem serves as a message about the transitory nature of human power or a direct criticism of monarchy and religion
• Alliteration with the "k" sound


  Creates an aggressive and harsh tone, indicating the cruelty of Ozymandias
• Other poems that compare well with "Ozymandias" in terms of misguided notions of human power are "The Prelude," "My Last Duchess," "Kamikaze," and "Tissue"