Ozymandias

Ozymandias

Language
1. "I met a traveller"
  1. Story like
    1. Every story comes to an end
      1. Pharaoh's once possessed power had vanished
    2. Makes the topic seem like a joke
    3. Shows that the narrator has never seen the statue himself
      1. Emphasises how Ozymandias in unimportant now
2. "antique land"
  1. old
  2. decaying
  3. unimportant
  4. antique=collectable
    1. Worthless, only seen as a souvenir which is there to look nice
3. "vast and trunkless legs of stone"
  1. The statue is big but not complete
    1. Time has weathered the statue and made it smaller, just like time has eliminated the pharaoh's power
    2. He no longer has any power
4. "desert"
  1. deserted
  2. alone
    1. no one cares anymore
  3. The statue is part of the desert, which could imply it is part of the abyss and is incomparable with the vastness of the desert
  4. monotonous; no change
  5. Could be a metaphor for time
    1. Nothing can escape time, just like nothing can escape the hugeness of the desert
  6. sand
    1. Hourglass
      1. Shows that time can't be stopped
      2. Time flows
  7. dangerous
  8. Synonyms: wasteland; barren
    1. infertile
5. "a shattered visage lies"
  1. Irony
    1. Even a powerful human cannot control the effects/ power of time.
Structure & Form
Context
1. Percy Shelley
  1. Romantic poet
    1. Focus on writer's or persona's emotions and imagination
    2. A celebration of nature
    3. Rejection of industrialisation, organised religion and social conventions
2. Written in 1817, 2 years after the Battle of Waterloo
  1. Britain was victorious but in debt
  2. There weren't enough jobs and prices were high
3. The poem explored the futility of human power in the face of enormity of time
  1. "Round the decay of that colossal wreck"
4. Ozymandias: Ramesses II
  1. Egyptian pharaoh
  2. Regarded as the greatest, most powerful pharaoh
  3. His statue was seen by Shelley in London
5. Themes
  1. Pride
  2. Arrogance
  3. Power
    1. Power of nature
      1. Nature more powerful than anything else?
    2. Power of humans
    3. Power of time
  4. Negative emotions

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