ozymandias- quote explanations

• "I met a traveller from an antique land"

  • frames poem as a story to convey fact the narrator hasn't even seen the statue; only heard about it
  • even more of an insult
  • such little importance
  • second hand account distances reader even further
• "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone"

  • completely broken
  • insulting to king
  • seems so horrific
  • further conveys heartless nature
  • nothing left to show for his arrogant boasting
  • ruined stature symbolises and emphasises nature of political power