Ozymandias

Ozymandias

1. Link to conflict

   • Conflict between a warrior's great power being reduced to wreckage.

2. Link to power

   • In this poem it shows that human power does not last forever, because nature is stronger. power can become addictive.

3. 5 key quotes

   • "King of kings"
     • Voice of ozymandias
   • "Sneer of cold command"
     • "sneer" brutal sinister and violent
   • "Look on my works ye Mighty and despair"
     • Pharo wanted people to feel intimidated - shows power is awful.
   • "Nothing beside remains"
     • bathos/juxtaposition - power has gone
   • "Colossal wreck boundless and bare"
     • semantic field "wreck" "bare" to symbolise that power falls to nothing.

4. Structure

   • The sonnet rhyme scheme is irregular.
     • Maybe symbolic of the statue itself, no longer perfect.
   • Could symbolise the broken, corrupt power.

5. Context

   • It acts as a warning to anyone who thinks they are immortal that power won't last.
     • It could be seen as a poem that criticises King George1st who used force
   • It is a romantic poet who believed in the power of nature.
   • Shelly hated violence and power being taken by force.