OZYMANDIAS

• Context

  • Poet: Percy Shelly
  • an ardent atheist
  • One of ’The Romantics’
  • Based Ozymandias on the reigning monarch ‘King George III’ and Egyptian pharaoh ‘Ramesses II’
  • About the ruins of a once great statue of a past tyrant
• Romanticism

  • A dislike for urban life, belief that nature is sublime
  • Anti-establishment
• Petrarchan Sonnet

  • A love poem from a man to a woman
  • 14 lines
  • First 8 lines (Octave) pose a problem
  • Last 6 (sestet) solves the problem
  • Line 9 (Volta) a sharp turn which brings about the move to the solution
  • ABBA ABBA rhyme scheme
• Shakespearean Sonnet

  • 16th C
  • 14 lines: 3 quatrains and a couplet
  • Volta comes in the couplet
  • Iambic Pentameter
  • ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
• ‘Sunk’ ’shattered’ ‘frown’ ‘wrinkled’

  Plethora of negative language which is clearly used as an attack and not a praising of the powerful
• ‘cold command’

  Alliterative repetition of the hard ‘c’ sounds reflects the hard nature of Ozymandias
• How does Shelly create the idea of ‘Poetry outlives the powerful?’

  The sculpter of Ramesses statue symbolises the idea of ‘art outliving the powerful’ by ridiculing Ozymandias, satirically attacking his subject by adding flaws. Evidently Shelly’s poem has outlived King George III’s reign, proving Shelly’s idea
• ”My name is Ozymandias, king of kings” context

  • Describes himself in a biblical way ‘king of kings’ the title given to Jesus thinking of himself as godlike
  • Jesus is referred to kings of kings in the bible - Revelation 1, Timothy 6:15
  • Desert setting reminds readers of the temptation of Jesus
• Why doesn’t ‘Ozymandias‘ follow a particular sonnet form?

  Shelly uses a mix of Petrarchan and Shakespearean Sonnets, using sonnets ironically as mockery of how there was a lack of love for Ozymandias.

  Transience of human and tyrannical power

  In the poem that says human power is transitory, the rhyme scheme is also transitory
• “Nothing beside remains”

  • Use of caesura, a stop or pause within a line of poetry often indicated by punctuation
  • Forces the reader to stop and reflect on the end of Ozymandias’ power
  • Symbolises Ozymandias’ abrupt end of his legacy
• ”Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

  • Irony - commands others to ‘despair’ at his accomplishments expecting that the statue would be an everlasting symbol of power
  • The statue is merely a ruin in an empty desert
  • Shelly uses this to highlight the transient (fleeting) nature of human power showing the greatest achievements are eventually erroded by nature and time
  • Tyrannical power does not last forever e.g Hitler
• “Boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away”

  • Alliteration draws the readers attention and emphasise the desolate expansive desert juxtaposing the supposedly grand tower of Ozymandias
  • Imagery of the “lone level sands” paints the picture of vast natural world that is indifferent to human accomplishments and has erased all traces of this
  • This imagery encapsulates this insignificance of human endeavours in the face of time of nature
• Sempiternal 


  Forever lasting
• Transience

  Lasting for a short time
• Tyrant

  Cruel and oppressive leader
• Radical

  Advocating to change something
• Sublime

  Something awe-inspiringly beautiful
• Anti-establishment

  Against the church/government