Oxymandias

Question 1

Context of poem

Answer 1

• He was against the monarchy and instituitions that represent power and authority
• An uncovered statue of egyptian pharaoh Ramesses ll - used the throne name Ozymandias
• He critisises the system in which any one individual is given so much power

Question 2

Form

Answer 2

Does not follow a regular sonnet rhyme scheme

Reflects the way that human power and structures can be destroyed

Written in iambic pentameter - often disrupted

Sonnet structure

Question 3

structure

Answer 3

A second-hand account, distancing the reader further from the dead king

The narrator builds an image of the statue by focusing on different parts

The poem ends by describing the enormous desert, summing up the statue’s insignificance

Question 4

summary of poem

Answer 4

The narrator meets a traveller who tells him about the statue in the middle of the desert

A statue of a previous king: his face is proud, and he boasts about his power in the inscription at the base

The statue has fallen down, and only the ruins remain

Question 5

Mood

Answer 5

Pride

Arrogance

Power - power to preserve elements of human excistence byt only temporarily

Question 6

Language

Answer 6

agressive tone from the tyrannical ruler

powerful language

natures power

Question 7

Key quotes

Answer 7

Half sunk a shattered visage lies

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works

The lone and level sands stretch far away

Question 8

‘Half sunk a shattered visage lies’

Answer 8

• emphasises destruction of his image
• Shows how time and nature have physically buries his power
• symbol of decay
• Symbolic in reflecting the crumbling of his legacy and ego

Question 9

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works’

Answer 9

• Imperative tone to heighten the commanding nature
• Repetition emphasizes his extreme power and arrogance
• Ironic: Even a powerful human cannot control the damaging effects of time
• Suggests a god-like status

Question 10

‘The lone and level sands stretch far away’

Answer 10

• Emphasizes the insignificance of Ozymandias
• Alliteration emphasizes the feeling of emptiness and eternity
• The desert is vast and survives longer than the broken statue
• nature endures not man
• theme of transience - power fades but nature remains