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| Question | Answer |
| Ozymandias Revision | Ozymandias Revision |
| What was the poem about? | - Narrator meets a traveller who tells him about the ruins. - It is a statue of a powerful Pharaoh, who was proud of his civilisation, that now is buried in sand. -The ruined statue is all that is left of the Pharaoh's efforts. |
| Themes: Pride Arrogance Power | Explanations of Themes: Pride: The ruler had great pride in his works, and called on others to admire him. Arrogance: He believed he was the most powerful, no one else could compete. Power: Human life is insignificant compared to the passing of time - time can destroy great civilisations and crumble empires to dust. |
| Form: | Sonnet, unusual rhyme scheme, suggests that things are out of balance. Iambic Pentameter and enjambement used to make the poem flow like natural speech. 2nd hand account, distances the reader even further from the Pharaoh. |
| Structure: | Narrator builds up an image by focussing on different parts of it in turn, the poem ends with a description of the vast desert, aiding to understand the final insignificance of the statue. |
| Irony: | There is nothing left to show for the ruler's life, and arrogant boasting. The ruined statue is a metaphor for human life, our achievements are insignificant compared to the vast, deserted Universe. |
| Contrast: | Between the arrogance of the Pharaoh and the eventual destruction of the civilisation. |
| A Cycle of Time: | The end of the poem: "The lone and level sands stretch far away" - Shows us that nothing is permanent - sense of transience, the desert has returned to how it was before the Pharaoh built his city. |
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