Analysis of Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Analysis of Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

1. Adjectives dramatic words create an image of power

   • vast
   • trunkless
   • shattered
   • colossal
     • tells us of his power
   • boundless
   • bare
   • lone
   • level
   • stretch
     • a long time, when he died it was over

2. Poem is about the loss of power over the passage of time. 'King of kings' but all is left is a broken statue

   • 'Nothing beside remains' everything that was important to Ozymandias is gone. Short sentence to make a point that things don't last
   • Ozymandias was strong and powerful king, he was cold and people could not do anything but obey him

3. Form of the poem is a sonnet (14 lines)

   • 8 lines - an octet
   • 6 lines - a sestet

4. The poem is in iambic pentameter

   • Each line has 5 pairs of syllables called feet
   • The first syllable is unstressed, the second is stressed
     • de, dum, de, dum, de dum etc

5. Vocabulary

   • Antique - old
   • Trunkless - without a body
   • Visage - face
   • Sneer - cruel/smug smile
   • Pedestal - base
   • Boundless - vast, endless
   • Colossal - very large
   • Decay - waste, loss of quality

6. Poetic techniques

   • Alliteration - lone, level; cold, command; sands, stretch
   • Assonance (repetition of vowel sounds) - stone, frown
   • Irony - line 11 because he has been dead for thousands of years, no-one cares anymore
   • Enjambment - no punctuation, the line follows from one to the next

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