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Ozymandias
Biography
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1827) was born in Sussex, England and attended Oxford University. However, he was expelled due to his political activism and spent several years campaigning against political injustices. His first marriage failed and Shelley then met and married Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Frankenstein. Shelley was good friends with fellow poet Lord Byron. Shelley drowned in a boating accident and was buried in Rome.
Analysis of "Ozymandias"
The speaker meets a traveler who tells him about the ruins of a large statue of an Egyptian pharaoh. The legs and head of the statue lie half-buried in the Saharan sands. The face appears imposing and grim. However, the sculptor, aware of the irony that the statue would far outlive the glory of the king, etched onto the stone the words, "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Now all that remains of the king's ego are these clumps of lifeless stone lingering in the vast desert.
Figures of Speech
No metaphors.
Personification in the phrase "hand that mocked them"
Hyperbole in Ozymandias' words "King of Kings"
No symbols other than the central symbolism of the poem itself.
No allusions except to ancient Egypt.
Devices of Sound
End rhymes: "Land" and "sand"; "read" and "fed."
Rhyme scheme is ABAB
Alliteration: "cold command," "boundless and bare," "lone and level," "sands stretch."
Assonance: none
Refrain: none
Repetition: none
Stanza
Fourteen lines of alternating end-rhymes
Meter
Iambic pentameter. Ten syllables each line
Questions:
1: Who is the speaker in this poem? The listener? How are they related?
The narrator only speaks in the first line. He or she then listens to the traveler, who speaks for the remainder of the poem.
2: What is the effect of repetition in the poem?
Shelley does not use repetition in "Ozymandias."
3: How would you characterize the diction in this poem? High middle or low? Abstract or concrete? Consistent with the speaker?
The diction is middle to low, and easy to understand. Although lyrical, the words are actually concrete and consistent with the speaker, who has visited Egypt.
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