Ozymandias By Percy Bysshe Shelley

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  • Created by: randall04
  • Created on: 28-10-19 20:01
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  • Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
    • quotes
      • I met a traveller from an antique land
        • speaker distances themselve from ozymandias, he hears abou it froma traveller. this person has came from an ancient land. antique implies that it is old and ancient yet it has a value to it. is also ambiguous
      • :My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
        • The term ‘King of Kings’ has a rhythmic, Old Testament biblical resonance; the Pharaoh is setting himself up as a god. (Note also that, like many today, Shelley was an atheist, so the ‘King of Kings’ could be a way of him mocking religion.)The archaic term ‘ye, mighty’ distances the reader; the space of centuries increases the mystique.The final words of the couplet ‘… and despair’ are chilling and signify inhuman cruelty. If read aloud the two words sound slow, elongated and ominous, with a dropping pitched syllable at the end.
        • Most importantly, much of the poem’s power lies in the fact that you can read “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” in two ways:The way Ozymandias intended it. As the inscription on the massive statue of a great pharaoh, it was supposed to inspire dread and awe. He believed other leaders of men (“ye mighty”) must despair at the results of his sublime power (his “works”).Ironically. During his lifetime Ozymandias was a feared and respected leader. Now he is a faint memory, a broken statue in the desert. As a Romantic poet, Shelley emphasized the incredible power of nature and the frailty of mankind. Here he suggests that the mighty ought to despair at how utterly forgotten Ozymandias has become. The desert–nature incarnate–has swallowed the vain pride of a once great man, and the same fate awaits the powerful of today.
      • The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
        • this line is the volta (the turning point) of the sonnet.
        • the hand could be ozy. waving at his people and mocking them for their lack of power and wealth
        • the heart that fed could be ironic as ozymadias had a wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command. he has never done anything good for his people.
        • “The hand that mocked them” refers to the sculptor. “Them” refers back to the “passions” of the pharaoh.“Mock” has a double meaning here: to create an imitation, but also to parody or critique, as the artist has done with Ozymandias. “The heart that fed [them]” refers to Ozymandias: the tyrant’s heart produced that “frown” and “sneer of cold command,” captured (“mocked”) by the anonymous sculptor.Notice also that ‘the heart fed’. The heart is usually thought of as the seat of love. Here it doesn’t love and gives nothing, but instead takes or ‘feeds’ on whatever it needs.Also, the heart represents emotion whereas the hand is mechanical. This idea of balance, or lack of balance, may link to how Ozymandias abused his power and was uncontrollable.
      • Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away."—
        • The caesura in “nothing beside remains. Round the decay” breaks up the line and contributes to sense of fragmenation. This mirrors the broken statue and the way Ozymandias' power has crumbled and decayed
        • the collosal wreck could be his ego
        • the sands could indicated the sublime and how little and insignificance humans are compared to the power of nature
    • form and structure
      • a petrachan sonnet- conveys ozys love w/ power+himself
        • uses an octave- which presents the problem (1st eight lines) and a sestat (last six lines) which solve this problem typical of a petrachan sonnet
        • however uses elements of a Shakespearean sonnet ABAB rhyme scheme
          • these changing sonnets can reflect the changing forms of power throughout it
            • uses an octave- which presents the problem (1st eight lines) and a sestat (last six lines) which solve this problem typical of a petrachan sonnet
            • theres also a new type of sonnet as there is no rhyming couplet at the end
        • theres also a new type of sonnet as there is no rhyming couplet at the end
    • context
      • Written by Shelly in a collection in 1819, this poem was inspired by the recent unearthing of part of a large statue of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Ramesses II.
      • The Egyptian Pharaohs likeRamesses believed themselves to be gods in mortal form and that their legacy wouldlast forever.
      • The Egyptian Pharaohs likeRamesses believed themselves to be gods in mortal form and that their legacy wouldlast forever.
      • shelley was a romantic poet who strongly disagreed with the monarchy
      • shelley was a supporter of the french rev.

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