Ozymandias Poem Analysis

Overview

This lecture analyzes Percy Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" from the Power and Conflict poetry cluster, focusing on its themes of power, legacy, and the transience of human achievements.

Poem Summary

• A traveler describes finding a ruined statue in the desert: broken legs and a shattered face.
• The statue belonged to Ozymandias, a once-powerful and arrogant king.
• All that remains of his empire is the decayed statue surrounded by endless empty desert.

Key Quotations & Analysis

• "Frown and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command": Indicates Ozymandias was harsh, unfriendly, and authoritative.
• Negative words like "frown," "wrinkled," "cold" show his cruelty and lack of empathy.
• Alliteration in "cold command" suggests harshness and oppressive rule.
• Polysyndeton (repetition of “and”) highlights ongoing abuse and lasting impact on his people.
• Caesura (punctuation in the line) slows pace, reflecting the prolonged suffering of his subjects.
• "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings": Use of possessive pronoun and third person shows arrogance and self-importance.
• Biblical allusion in "King of Kings" gives Ozymandias a god-like status.
• Present tense ("is") indicates his belief in his eternal power.
• "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!": Imperative command and exclamation suggest aggression and pride.
• Sudden tone shift in "Nothing beside remains" (bathos) emphasizes the futility of his boasts.
• "Colossal wreck": Oxymoron highlights the contrast between former greatness and current ruin.
• "Lone and level sands stretch far away": Alliteration and sibilance create a sense of emptiness and peace after his demise.

Structure and Form

• One single stanza reinforces the brief, fleeting nature of power.
• Written as a sonnet (14 lines), traditionally about love or death, highlighting Ozymandias’s love for himself and the end of his power.
• Iambic pentameter reflects the constant passage of time and the insignificance of human achievements.

Context & Poet’s Message

• Shelley was a Romantic poet, reacting against the Industrial Revolution and loss of spirituality, nature, and emotion.
• The poem critiques the arrogance and futility of human power and monuments.
• Ozymandias is based on the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II, whose legacies have faded despite his tyranny and pride.
• Shelley's message: Human power is ephemeral—nature and time will always outlast rulers and empires.

Key Terms & Definitions

• Polysyndeton — repeated use of conjunctions (e.g., "and") for emphasis.
• Caesura — a pause in a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation.
• Oxymoron — two contradictory terms placed together (e.g., "colossal wreck").
• Bathos — sudden drop from grand to trivial, often for effect.
• Iambic Pentameter — a poetic meter with ten syllables per line, alternating unstressed/stressed.
• Romantic — relating to a movement valuing emotion, nature, and individualism.

Action Items / Next Steps

• Create mind maps for three key quotations from "Ozymandias."
• Embed contextual and poet’s message analysis in your exam responses naturally.
• Review the structure and language devices of sonnets for poetry exams.