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20 views15 pages

Slide With Notes

Uploaded by

fozia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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You are on page 1/ 15

OZYMANDIAS

Percy Bysshe Shelley


(1792 - 1822, England)
Form of Poem
The poem is an Italian sonnet.

14 LINES. Although the poem does not follow the rhyme scheme
of an Italian sonnet, thematically it can be divided into an:

octave, which describes the remains of the statue, and


a sestet, which discusses the inscription on the pedestal and the
irony of these words in the context of the emptiness of the
desert.
CONTEXT OF POEM
• The poem is based on a partially destroyed statue
of Ramesses ll.
• Ramesses was known to be powerful and prideful.
Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great,
was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of
Egypt.
• The statue was destroyed (probably by vandals a
long time before the poem was written).
• The statue was transported to England when the
poem was written.
SUMMARIES OF: OCTAVE & SESTET
OCTAVE
The statue is broken, but you can still make out the face of a person.
The face looks stern and powerful, like a ruler. The sculptor did a
good job at expressing the ruler’s personality. Focuses on the
statue.

SESTET
There is no evidence of Ozy’s greatness in the vicinity of his giant,
broken statue. There is just a lot of sand, as far as the eye can
see. Focuses on surroundings.
Themes
 Nature conquers all.
 Tyranny: The harsh, cruel of unfair control over other people. (single ruler)
 Pride cometh before the fall.
* Pride and destruction are linked.
* Nothing lasts forever.
* Pride will one day lead to destruction.
 Life is a transitory adventure.
* Transitory means change.
* No matter the pride or the passion that goes into a work of art, one day it
will be gone. Nothing lasts forever.
* Our life/goods are transitory.
Tone:
Lines 1-4 Poem has an ironic and satirical Contrast
Speaker (mocking) tone (Antethesis):
We expect stone to be
Ancient/very old land. EGYPT stronger than sand, but
the sand breaks the
1. I met a traveller from an antique land stone down over time.
Big and without torso Alliteration “St”:
Emphasises the
2. Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone steadfastness of
the statue
IRONIC
3. Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, CONTRAST

Alliteration “s” : ) emphasises that


4.theHalf
groundsunk, a shatter'd
is unstable and has visage lies, whose frown
submerged the objects above He was often angry and unpleasant

Destroyed face
Alliteration: Emphasises the callous authority
with which Ozymandias ruled – he clearly
Lines 5-8 lacked compassion for his people. Distant
leader.
Suggests that the face
is unsmiling and
arrogant
5. And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Conveys a
menacing(threatening) and
mocking grimace (face)
Artist was good at his job.
6. Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Captured his character,
personality and looks well.

Still see emotions carved stone


7. Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,

artist King ozymandias


8. The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
Metaphor: Compares a heart to something that eats, suggesting figuratively that Ozymandias devoured his subjects –
he used them and their fear of him to feed his ego.
Irony: The contrast between the haughty (showing ALLITERATION:
dislike/disdain for others; arrogant) words of the inscription and Emphasises the
Lines 9-14 the rest of the poem create a strong sense of irony. We expect
to see his works, but we see nothing.
emptiness.

9. And on the pedestal these words appear:


Great leader

10. "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings


My achievements You powerful people Be sad

11. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”


There is nothing left destruction

12. Nothing beside remains: round the decay


big empty

13. Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,


empty Statue in the
middle of
14. The lone and level sands stretch far away. nowhere.
Summary
 The speaker meets a traveller who travelled to Egypt, who tells him about a
broken statue that he saw there in the desert.
 It is the remains of a statue of one of the pharaos of Egypt. Close by, half sunken
in the sand, lies the shattered face of the statue.
 However the pedestal remains with the legs of the body.
 The cruel authoritarian expression carved into the stone face reveals that the
sculptor accurately captured the character and emotions of his subject. (arrogant,
haughty, conceited king.)
 He thought of himself as superior to all the other kings.
 He says that they must come and look at what he has achieved, and yet there is
nothing but sand around him.
IRONY
The words on the pedestal is ironic, because there are no works
left. So ironically that nothing that Ozymandias has built has
survived.
This reinforces the theme – pride leads to destruction.
TAUTOLOGY

Many words describing the same thing:


“shattered” “lifeless” “nothing” “decay”
“wreck” “boundless, bare”
ALLITERATION

The alliteration in “boundless and bare” also reinforces the ruin and
the theme – nothing lasts forever.
Vocabulary
wanting strict obedience at the
authoritarian
expense of others’ freedom

trunkless With no body

visage face

pedestal the base of a statue


callous cruel; unfeeling
potent Powerful

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