Ozymandias

• "who frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command"

  • wrinkled - age so shows power is already diminishing
  • cold command - alliteration of harsh sounding c's - Ozy is emotionless
• "the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed"

  • last line before volta
  • Ozy mocks his people/ sculptor mocks Ozy
  • Shelley's message that art will outlive leaders
• "Look on my Works, ye mighty, and despair!"

  • irony - statue gets destroyed
• "Round the decay Of that colossal wreck"

  • semantic field of deterioration
• "I met a traveller from an antique land"

  • opening line
  • distances reader from poem's original speaker
  • antique land - thirst for power is as old as history and encourages a more democratic society rather than a dictatorship