Ozymandias Flashcards
(11 cards)
What poems can you compare with Ozymandias?
- My last duchess - Abuse of power and legacy
- London - criticism of man-made power
- Tissue - Fragility of human control
- Storm on the island - Power of nature
- Exposure - Nature’s indifference to man
What is Ozymandias about?
A king thinking that he is very powerful, so he built a statue to be remembered but it was destroyed
What is the context in Ozymandias?
- Shelley was a Romantic poet, critical of absolute power and human pride
- Inspired by the discovery of a statue of Ozymandias, highlighting the inevitable decay of human achievements
‘I met a traveller from an antique land’
- The speaker distances himself from the description of Ozymandias, both in time and space.
- This happens because Shelley was writing about a dictator, and he was also writing against the political ruling class in Britain.
- And Britain is becoming a country which is also going to be ruled by the military - someone who Shelley thinks might become a dictator
- As he is writing about his own country he doesn’t want to appear unpatriotic, so he creates this distance between himself and the ‘antique land’ he is describing.
‘And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command’
- The adjective ‘wrinkled’ connotes to age, so the statue itself also seems to include the ideas that his power is already on his way out, Ozymandias was already looking old at his power
- Even though he felt at his most powerful when he had his stature made, Shelly is pointing out that even then his power was slipping away
the alliteration of ‘Cold command’ - emphasizes how emotionless the ruler (Ozymandias) is, also representing the kind of ruler who is just interested in power
‘The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed’
- Ambiguity - Describes Ozymandias itself and the sculptor.
- Volta
- ‘The hand that mocked them’ is a reference to Ozymandias, he is waving to the crowd in such a way that he is ‘mocking’ them, he feels they are inferior for allowing him to rule them, and because they are not as powerful
- ‘The heart that fed’, the ruler is offering his own people nothing
- This may also be describing the sculptor, Shelly is pointing out that art is far more powerful than the political power that men chose to pursue
- The sculpture is somehow mocking Ozymandias, because he is making him as he actually is, so people can see him as he truly is, unkind, selfish and cruel
- Art will last longer
‘look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair’
Irony - Ozymandias hoping that not just the statue but everything around it presumably would despair at how wonderful and how powerful this ruler was, but now ironically there is nothing left
- The works are a reference to the artist, Ozymandias is no longer mighty, but the artist is
‘Of that colossal wreck’
- It is a reference to the Colossus of Rhodes
- He is suggesting the even the most mighty symbols of power get destroyed over time
- Another way that Shelly points to the power of art, because even that the statue has disappeared its storytelling are is still there
- Ozymandias wants his works to be mighty and last forever and Shelly is the same
What is the form of Ozymandias?
Sonnet
- Shelly uses the sonnet form to highlight how Ozymandias is in love with himself and in love
Rhyme scheme
- Not constant with initial rhyme scheme being replaced with something new
Power is transitory - it doesn’t last forever - it changes over time
- The rhyme scheme changes as the poem progresses
Representing the human power that is transitory, and it doesn’t last forever
‘King of kings’
- The title king of kings is given to God (biblical allusion)
- Ozymandia seem himself as a God-like figure
- He is also saying that the power of the church may one day fall as Ozymandias
- Alliteration ‘k’, creates an aggressive, harsh tone - indicates the cruelty of Ozymandias
