★★★Ozymandias ★★★
Percy Bysshe Shelley
★★Summary:
The poem opens with a description.The speaker is meeting with someone who has travelled a place in ancient civilization.That's means he travelled Egypt.Where he was a fragmented statue in the middle of the desert.He also saw a statue that was broken but he could understand that it was a statue of a mighty king.He identified it by the face of the statue.The face of the statue looks strong and powerful as like a ruler.The statue expressed the ruler's personality.There was also a pedestal at the statue where the traveller read that the statue was of "Ozymandias, king of kings." But life is transitory so by the rules of time The great king Ozymandias and his kingdom were destroyed.Now,there are no evidence of his greatness without a broken statue.All that is left is the wrecked statue. The might and majesty of a king do not last,only great art endures.
★★Rhyme Scheme:
Rhyme scheme is the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse
★The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAB ACDC EDEF EF
I met a traveller from an antique land (A)
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone (B)
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, (A)
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown (B)
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command (A)
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read (C)
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, (D)
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed. (C)
And on the pedestal these words appear: (E)
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: (D)
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" (E)
Nothing beside remains: round the decay (F)
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, (E)
The lone and level sands stretch far away. (F)
So we can say that the rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAB ACDC EDEF EF
★★Tone:
Tone is a musical or vocal sound with reference to its pitch, quality, and strength.
The tone of the poem is ironic.Here the traveller describes about the power and grandeur as ruler of a mighty king.There was a broken statue scattered on an empty desert.The huge statue he had carved of himself to intimidate people. No trace of his kingdom still exists beyond the shattered statue. No "works" survive to cause people to tremble and "despair."
Yet the irony runs deeper. The description on the broken statue is
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Though he was mighty but now he has no power left. His words are empty. The mighty might do well to remind themselves they too are not so powerful as they might be.The poem's irony is somber.Ozymandias, whose weakness is in his pride and inflated ego. Words such as "shattered," "sunk," and "lifeless".
The end of the poem is quiet and solemn. We feel the emptiness and can experience the lonely echoes.
★★Structure:
The poem is a sonnet.A sonnet is a lyric poem consisting of fourteen iambic pentameter lines intricate by a rhyme scheme. There are some variations in its rhyme scheme. The poet doesn't follow a definite rhyme scheme.
The poet opens the poem with a traveller's narration of a great broken statue.The statue's legs stood on the pedestal,the body was not on the leg but on the desert.In the vast desert,there was no mighty power left for the king of kings Ozymandis.The poet concludes the poem by saying that nothing is permanent in this real world.Everything is decaying.
★★Theme:
Theme is the central idea in a piece of writing. The whole body explains the theme.
The central theme of the poem is futility of power.The poem begins with a traveller of an unknown land from ancient Egypt.The traveller tells a story of a powerful king.Though he had died but his statue was found in a vast desert.The statue was broken The broken statue of king of kings Ozymandis symbolizes the futility of power and pride of material wealth on this earth.Once the king had vast kingdom,huge wealth,and unlimited power. But now the broken statue of the mighty king shows the futility of his power and pelf.The poet ends the poem with a despair that everything is vanished into dust of boundless desert lying bare under the vast open sky.
★★Authors Position:
When an author writes to persuade,he/she will have his/her own position on the subject.The author's position is an author's opinion about the subject.It may be subjective or objective.
Subjective means where the writer can use his/her own feelings,emotion, and own choice.
Objective means where writer cann't use his/her own feelings,emotions and own choice.
The poem is a subjective one. The poem is written in first person narrator where the poet expresses his views in the poem.The poem begins with a traveller.Who was talking about a mighty king to the poet.So the poet here includes directly in this poem.So its a subjective poem.
★★Figures of Speech:
Figures of Speech means use of ornamental elements into a piece of writing.
★Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sound.
*"Half sand and shattered visage lies,whose frown".
Here, "S" is repeated so its an example of alliteration.
★Irony
It is a figure of speech in which a statement or a situation or an action which actually means the opposite idea of its surface meaning.
*"My name is Ozymandias,King of Kings"
Here, the poet describes the futility of the power of human being.Once Ozymandias was a mighty kind,who has a lot of wealth and power.But now his stature are seen in a vast desert that is broken.So its an irony.
★Symbolism
Symbolism refers to a thing that is stands for something else.It is basically an image which,by virtue of recurrent uses.
*"Look on my Works,ye Mighty, and despair!"
Here the poet uses symbolism.Here,Works means Ozymandias's kingdom,his wealth.
And "Mighty" means his unlimited power.
***To err is human.
-----Written by Krishna Mandal