Ozymandias notes

summary

• the speaker retells a conversation with a traveller about an old, broken statue in the desert
• the traveller describes two legs and a powerful looking, disdainful face
• the statue's pedestal says it is of 'Ozymandias, king of kings' and bids the onlooker- and especially other kings-  to admire his works and 'despair'
• the ending describes the barreness of the desert around the broken statue

key aspects

• the use of the traveller to describe the statue distances the reader from the poem's original speaker
• this sense of distance supports the poem's ancient subject matter
• the reported speech element helps to make the views expressed seem universal and absolute
• shelley's use of irony contrasts the arrogance of the inscription with the actual physical state of the statue, showing how worldly power crumbles and fades
• 'Ozymandias' is a sonnet in pentameter using rhyme
• this form gives it weight and a serious tone

key setting- the egyptian desert

• Ozymandias was the ancient greek name for the egyptian pharaoh ramses II
• poem was inspired by the removal of parts of a statue from a temple in greece to the British museum at the time shelley was writing
• the great riches and advanced civilisation of ancient egypt are well known
• yet the actual power associated with this culture has long since disappeared
• shelley depicts the desert as a barren wasteland, which may symbolically represent the pointlessness of great empires
• another aspect of the setting is the framing device
• the poem is effectively all reported speech from 'a traveller'
• almost as a final insult, Ozymandias, 'king of kings' is further reduced to being just a story passed around in chance encounters
• we don't know where the poem's speaker is or where the meeting took place

key technique- irony

• shelley…