Ozymandias

Ozymandias

1. Story line

   • The narrator meets a traveller who tells him about a statue standing in the middle of the desert
   • It's a statue of a powerful king who used to rule here
   • His face is proud and arrogantly boasts about how great he is in an inscription in the base of the statue
   • However the statue has crumbled away and only ruins remain
   • The statue ruins are all that remains of the king.

2. Form and structure

   • It's a sonnet with an unusual rhyme scheme
   • unusual rhyme scheme suggests things are out of balance
   • The narrator builds up an image by focusing on different parts of it the statue.
   • It's a second hand account which distances the reader further from the dead king
   • Poem ends by describing an enourmous desert helping to show insignificance of the statue
   • Uses iambic pentameter and enjambment so that the poem flows like natural speech
     • Poetry words

3. Language

   • IRONY
     • Nothing left to show for the rulers arrogant boasting
     • Ruined statue is a metaphor for all human life
       • All human achievements are insignificant because our lives are so short compared with with the universe
     • Desert represents the universe which stretches on and exists long after our lives and rulers arrogance has been destroyed
   • CONTRAST
     • theres a contrast between the arrogant king who thought he was the mightiest ruler and the powerful destruction of the statue over time
     • Human achievements like cities statues are all temporary - contrasts with the desert which is lifeless but enduring
   • ANGRY LANGUAGE
     • tyranny of the ruler is suggested through aggresive language

4. My ideas

   • Antique land can be used to represent the way the land lives on long after each civilisation is destroyed
   • I think it has been used by the ruler as he believes nothing to remain in comparison to his rule as he is the top of everything
     • It could be used now as a form of irony as nothing besides the ruins remains in the vast desert
   • The alliteration in the last 2 lines emphasises the feeling of empty space in the surrounding desert
   • The poem suggests that he was a cruel ruler and that he was not liked much as he was arrogant and thought more abut himself than the others

5. Feelings and Attitudes

   • POWER
     • human life is insignificant compared to the passing of time
     • time is so powerful
     • time can destroy civilisations and make human achievement appear temporary
   • ARROGANCE
     • the inscription shows he believed he was most powerful ruler in the land
     • nobody else could compete with him
     • ge thought he was better than those he ruled
   • PRIDE
     • the ruler was proud of what he achieved
     • he called on others to admire what he did