A mysterious remoteness is set up an unnamed I reposts what an anonymous traveller said. The traveller is from an antique land.

. We do not know where the two met.

Another name for Ramesses the Great, Pharaoh if ancient Egypt. He exemplified the mighty fallen

The poem is a sonnet, written in iambic pentameter but its rhyme scheme is unusual and the use of caesura and enjambment seem to break up pattern. This reflects the tension in the poem. The single sentence (3-11) injects a burst of energy before the final demise Nothing

Ozymandias
Harsh, alliterative sounds I met a traveller from an antique land final stubborn statement? Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatterd visage lies, whose frown Poets mocking the Vanity: Vanity in life, and in the futile And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command attempt to preserve it in art. Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stampd on these lifeless things, Compare with Keats Grecian Urn. Cold Pastoral. The hand that mockd them and the heard that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! The ending confirms the central Nothing beside remains. Round the decay theme of the poem the transience of man. How much Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, Ozymandias is the epitome of The lone and level sands stretch far humans generally is well worthy away. of consideration.

Ozymandias seems almost inhuman, so lacking in warmth is he statue is appropriate.

Concise and abrupt to reflect simple finality. Appropriately following immediately on from the supreme arrogance of the king

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1972-1822

The difficult line of the poem: the hand may well refer to the sculptor, mocking in the sense of imitating the Kings passions or facial expression. Some find this interpretation at odds with the rest of the line. The hand could represent the authority of Ozymandias and doubtless, ridicule was one of his idiosyncrasies. The hear that fed then becomes the central symbol of the body politic a king feeding his people. The line here is ironic since it represents what the kings seeks to capture in the statue and his own belief. Compare Caesars dream (Julius Caesar).

Key Language: connotation, imagery, metaphor, simile Structure and form: stanzas, type, patterns, contrast, juxtaposition Poetic methods: alliteration, caesura, assonance, rhythm, rhyme Character and voice: who is speaking and to whom? Tone of voice Links: comparisons to other speakers, methods and themes