ozymandias

• ozymandias tells the story of a statue in the middle of a desert that is now decrepit and dilapidated, but once was a statue of ozymandias
• ozymandias communicates a sense of inevitability towards the breakdown of power with the judicious use of dramatic irony. "Look on my works encapsulates this sentiment as the statue is situated in a barren and featureless desert. The irony is further reiterated in the second line where "mighty" turns into "despair". The imperative verb "despair" serves to show how even after death ozymandias still sees himself worthy of commanding.
• Shelley also uses bathos (anti-climax) to utilise the fickle nature of power, evident in the lines "look on my works ye mighty and despair" to "nothing beside remains". The stark contrast between the "works" of ozymandias to the desolate desert goes to show how regardless of the magnitude of power one holds, particularly tyrannical power, its not sempiternal.
• Shelley makes the desire for barbarity to be synonymous with an individuals downfall. The personification of "lifeless statue" implies tha despite ozymandias opulence (Wealth) and might the only sentiments left from his reign are destructive.
• "boundless and bare" "lone and level". The use of alliteration serves to emphasise the vast and mighty extent of nature. When ozymandias sees his power eroding and getting chipped away with time, nature enjoys transcendent power, serving only to show the futility of human power.
• shelleys setting of the poem in a desert is significant. The desert is culturally bankrupt and empty which goes to show that despite humans hubris and desire to conquer the world, nature will last longer, Alternatively, the desert setting and sand covering the statue symbolises ozymandias' memory figuratively being covered up by the sands of time.
• Form

  1. The sonnet form of the poem is a miz of petrachean (14 lines) and shakesperean (irregular rhyme scheme). The sonnet allows shelley to simultaneously mock ozymadias lack of love and respect as a barbaric ruler and to ridicule his excessive hubris

  2. iambic pentameter (10 syllables dadumX5) acts as a motif of control. Its persistency throughout the poem reflects the frightful oppression caused by those in power.
• Ozymandias is a metaphor for Napoleon Bonaparte who had conquered much of Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. Shelley wrote the poem during the Napoleonic Wars when Britain was fighting France. Shelley wanted to remind readers that just as Napoleon would fall, so would any other ruler who thought they were invincible.
• structure

  1. Enjambment. - the use of constrained enjambment e.g. antique land/who said is used in order to contrast with the tight one stanza and strict iambic pentameter. This may be shelley commenting on the illusion of freedom under a tyrants reign.
  2. Terminal caesura e.g. "despair", "bare", "away" symbolising how human power is transient and easily curtailed by natures omnipotence.