Ozymandias is a poem written from the perspective of a man who has been told about a statue in the desert- the statue is of famous powerful pharaoh Ozymandia, but it is now crumbling and destroyed. Shelley paints an unflattering picture of the pharaoh, perhaps to show his dislike for monarchs and rulers.
The female speaker of Les Grand Seigneurs had sexual power over men but has lost it since marrying. Ozymandias is written as a sonnet- which is a form usually reserved for lovers and love poems.
And to be considered to have been powerful forever. Both poems explore how power is not permanent, and can be lost. You are commenting using your WordPress. Although it didn't receive much attention when it was published, "Ozymandias" eventually became Shelley's most well-known work, and the phrase "look on my works, ye mighty, and despair" is often referenced in popular culture.
What message was Shelley trying to convey with the poem Ozymandias? The major theme behind "Ozymandias" is that all power is temporary, no matter how prideful or tyrannical a ruler is. Ramesses II was one of the ancient world's most powerful rulers. He reigned as pharaoh for 66 years, led the Egyptians to numerous military victories, built massive monuments and temples, and accumulated huge stores of wealth.
He eventually became known as Ramesses the Great and was revered for centuries after his death. Throughout the poem, Ramesses' pride is evident, from the boastful inscription where he declares himself a "king of kings" to the "sneer of cold command" on his statue. However, "Ozymandias" makes it clear that every person, even the most powerful person in the land, will eventually be brought low, their name nearly forgotten and monuments to their power becoming buried in the sand. Although the poem only discusses Ozymandias, it implies that all rulers, dynasties, and political regimes will eventually crumble as well, as nothing can withstand time forever.
At the time the poem was written, Napoleon had recently fallen from power and was living in exile, after years of ruling and invading much of Europe. His fate is not unlike Ozymandias'. When Ozymandias orders "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! For a fairly short poem, "Ozymandias" is full of poetic devices. A poetic device is a linguistic tool that a poet can use to help convey their message, as well as make the poem more interesting to read or hear.
In this section we discuss the key poetic devices in the Ozymandias poem. All sonnets, including "Ozymandias" are fourteen lines long and written in iambic pentameter.
The iambic pentameter sounds more natural than many other rhythms, but it still has a purposeful enough rhythm to easily differentiate it from normal speech even in the s no one would naturally speak the way "Ozymandias" was written. Sonnets have been a standard poetry format for a long time—Shakespeare famously wrote sonnets—and it would have been an obvious choice for Shelley and Smith to use for their competition since sonnets have a set structure but still allow the poet a great deal of freedom within that structure.
Alliteration is the repetition of a sound or letter at the beginning of multiple words in a sentence or paragraph. There are several instances of alliteration in "Ozymandias" including the phrases "cold command" and " boundless and bare. The repetition in alliteration often makes a poem sound more interesting and pleasant, and it can also create a soothing rhythm in contrast to the tension caused by enjambment see below. An apostrophe is a poetic device where the writer addresses an exclamation to a person or thing that isn't present.
In "Ozymandias" the apostrophe occurs in the inscription on the statue's pedestal: "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence beyond a line break, couplet, or stanza without an expected pause. Shelley uses several within the poem and each one has significant effects. The first falls after 'Who said:' in the second line.
The pause here mimics the traveller's intake of breath before telling his story, dramatising the moment as well as creating distance between the description of the statue and the poet's retelling, almost as if recalling from memory. The second caesura comes after 'Stands in the desert. The final caesura repeats this effective trick, following 'Nothing beside remains.
By contrast, much of the rest of the poem is formed of long, complicated sentences that stretch on and on, like the desert or time itself. Interest in Ancient Egpytian history was fashionable in the period and the importation of statues to British and French museums was beginning in earnest.
It isn't clear whether Shelley would have seen statues himself and whether he was inspired by a real piece of sculpture. Irony The statue is of course ruined - the legs remain but the body has fallen. The face 'visage' lies on the sand, 'half-sunk' and 'shattered', making it hard to recognise. According to the inscription, which has survived, the king Ozymandias set up the statue to draw attention to his 'works' - but his own face has not survived, let alone the empire he may have once ruled.
The stretching of the 'lone and level sands' in every direction cover any buildings or rich farmland that may have flourished here. However, one survivor beside Ozymandias' words is the sculptor's skill: it is witnessed by the success of the statue in capturing 'those passions' of the king, even when partly ruined. Nameless, it is the sculptor whose works are still valued, just as Shelley's poem survives from his own day.
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