Ozymandias

• Ozymandias is a sonnet (14 lines) and sonnets are normally about love
• Ozymandias is a polyphonic poem (there is more than one speaker)
• Ozymandias was written in the romantic era where there was a rejection of institutions of power
• King George III was ruling at the time and engaged in many military conflicts and was tyrannical
• The tyranny from the ruler

  " sneer of cold command "

  • Alliteration
• Nothing is left from his rule

  " Lone and level sands … Nothing beside remains. Round the decay "

  • Alliteration emphasises the vast power of nature
  • Metaphor for the passage of time
• His power is not everlasting

  " Two vast and trunkless legs of stone "
• Ozymandias being a vague memory

  “ Half sunk, a shattered visage lies “

  Dictation of shattered which signifies the collapse of his tyrannical authority

  Irony of the kings hubris and vanity of appearance is now just a “visage”