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Ozymandias
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Poetry Across Time: Character and voice Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things, The hand that mock’d them and the heard that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away. Key Language: connotation, imagery, metaphor, simile Structure and form: stanzas, type, patterns, contrast, juxtaposition Poetic methods: alliteration, caesura, assonance, rhythm, rhyme Character and voice: who is speaking and to whom? Tone of voice Links: comparisons to other speakers, methods and themes A mysterious remoteness is set up – an unnamed ‘I’. The traveller is from an ‘antique land’. We do not know where the two met. Another name for Ramesses the Great, Pharaoh if ancient Egypt. He exemplified the ‘mighty fallen’ Rhyme scheme is unusual and the use of caesura and enjambment seem to break up pattern. This doubtless reflects the tension in the poem. Sonnet written in iambic pentameter The single sentence (3-11) nonetheless injects a burst of energy before the final demise – ‘Nothing…’ Ozymandias seems almost inhuman, so lacking in warmth is he – statue is appropriate. Concise and abrupt to reflect simple finality. Harsh, alliterative sounds – final stubborn statement? Poet’s mocking the Vanity. Compare with Keats’ ‘Grecian Urn’. ‘Cold Pastoral’. The ending confirms the central theme of the poem – the transience of man. Hand may refer to the sculptor, mocking the King’s ‘passions’ or facial expression. The ‘hand’ could represent the authority of Ozymandias. Interpretations of the poem: A symbolic representation of the arrogance of man and the behaviour of those who feel that they are immortal. The poem also serves as a reminder of how we remember those who rule through fear. The breaking down of the statue can also be seen as a symbol of nature's destruction of human vanity.
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Transcript of Ozymandias
Poetry Across Time: Character and voice
Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things, The hand that mock’d them and the heard that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Key Language: connotation, imagery, metaphor, simile Structure and form: stanzas, type, patterns, contrast, juxtaposition Poetic methods: alliteration, caesura, assonance, rhythm, rhyme Character and voice: who is speaking and to whom? Tone of voice Links: comparisons to other speakers, methods and themes
A mysterious remoteness is set up – an unnamed ‘I’. The traveller is from an ‘antique land’. We do not know where the two met.
Another name for Ramesses the Great, Pharaoh if ancient Egypt. He exemplified the ‘mighty fallen’
Rhyme scheme is unusual and the use of caesura and enjambment seem to break up pattern. This doubtless reflects the tension in the poem.
Sonnet written in iambic pentameter
The single sentence (3-11) nonetheless injects a burst of energy before the final demise – ‘Nothing…’
Ozymandias seems almost inhuman, so lacking in warmth is he – statue is appropriate.
Concise and abrupt to reflect simple finality.
Harsh, alliterative sounds – final stubborn statement?
Poet’s mocking the Vanity. Compare with Keats’ ‘Grecian Urn’. ‘Cold Pastoral’.
The ending confirms the central theme of the poem – the transience of man.
Hand may refer to the sculptor, mocking the King’s ‘passions’ or facial expression. The ‘hand’ could represent the authority of Ozymandias.
Interpretations of the poem: A symbolic representation of the arrogance of man and the behaviour
of those who feel that they are immortal. The poem also serves as a reminder of how we remember those who rule through fear. The breaking down of the statue can also be seen as a symbol of nature's destruction of human vanity.
