Ozymandias

• Ozymandias


  Poem by Percy Shelley about a traveler who encounters a broken statue in the desert
• Statue


  • Two huge stone legs standing without a body
  • Head of the statue partially sunk into the ground
  • Face has a nasty, arrogant look despite being shattered and cracked
  • Sculptor made it look very lifelike
• Inscription on the statue: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
• Statue's original state


  It had once stood in the midst of a vast and impressive empire
• Statue's current state


  It is crumbled and broken, isolated in the middle of the lonely desert
• Romantic poetry


  Poetic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries
• Conventions of Romantic poetry


  • Dislike of imposed control by those in power
• Shelley had a great dislike of the monarchy and religion
• Shelley published "Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things" in 1811, criticizing the monarchy
• Shelley published "The Necessity of Atheism", which resulted in him being thrown out of Oxford University
• Ozymandias


  Criticism of monarchy and religion
• The overlying message of the poem is that power is transitory, it doesn't last forever
• Sonnet


  A form of love poetry which originated in 13th century Italy, best known with reference to the 14th century poet Petrarch
• Petrarchan sonnet


  • 14 lines structured as a group of 8 lines (octave) and a group of 6 lines (sestet)
• Shakespearean sonnet


  • 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme
• Ozymandias does not fit neatly into either the Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnet form
• Form of the poem

  Reflects the transitory nature of power, changing over time
• "King of kings"


  A title given to God in the Bible, suggesting Ozymandias sees himself as god-like in his power
• Alliteration of "k" sound

  Indicates the cruelty and aggression of Ozymandias
• Ozymandias can be read as a criticism of monarchy and religion
• Ozymandias


  Comparable to other poems about misguided notions of human power, such as "Extract from the Prelude", "My Last Duchess", "Kamikaze", and "Tissue"