Ozymandias by Percy Shelley
- Created by: Iris02
- Created on: 14-05-19 18:33
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- Ozymandias by Shelley
- Context
- Shelley and his friends, Horace Smith had challenged each other to write a poem on the same subject
- New discovery of statue of Ramesses ii
- Inspired Shelley
- Key themes
- Power
- The power of an individual leader, and how strong they are percieved to be at that time
- Often arrogance about their strength
- How the power of an individual can be completely be forgotten after their end of rule/life
- Nature will eventually take over and overpower the people
- Those in power are often disliked
- despite this, it is clear they are very passionate
- The power of an individual leader, and how strong they are percieved to be at that time
- Nature
- Nature will eventually take over
- Is more powerful than people
- Will never be forgotten/disregarded unlike that of a person
- Nature will eventually take over
- Power
- Language
- Story-like language
- "I met a traveller from an antique land",
- Taken on a journey somewhere "antique"
- Somewhere ancient, old but equally just as precious
- Antiques are usually associated with something that someone once owned and loved
- Taken on a journey somewhere "antique"
- "I met a traveller from an antique land",
- Shelley's list of what this traveller has seen sounds large and vast, compared to the bare desert sand
- "Two vast trunkless legs of stone; a shattered visage"
- "Stand in the desert"
- All that is left is ruins of what once was
- Despite it being only ruins, you can tell what the statue was like, and it's sculpture
- "Sneer of cold demand"
- The sculpturer has mocked him here, so he was likely disliked by his people
- "Those passions read"
- "The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed"
- The hand being raised is often seen as a sign of power in statues
- The heart feeding off of his power
- Mocking signifying he thinks he is better than others
- "Sneer of cold demand"
- Despite it being only ruins, you can tell what the statue was like, and it's sculpture
- "Two vast trunkless legs of stone; a shattered visage"
- "king of kings"
- Biblical language suggesting the most powerful, and forever so
- Ironic as he no longer has this power
- "Look upon my works"
- There is nothing left but sand and desert
- Irony and mockery as there is nothing, now, for them to look at
- He no longer has power, all that is left is a pedestal and trunkless legs
- Biblical language suggesting the most powerful, and forever so
- Story-like language
- Structure
- In the form of a sonnet - 14 lines
- Often about love - possibly the irony that this is about someone who is now forgotten, but was once "loved"
- Fragmented - fragments of a statue, no longer pieced together
- In the form of a sonnet - 14 lines
- Context
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