His belief that his empire would live long is ridiculed by the fact the remains of his statue are all that is left. Yet, all that is left of these delusions of grandeur are legs stuck in the sand and a shattered, sunken head. The “ heart” represents the heart of the king, symbolizing a king who fed upon the fear of his subjects, whose terrible heart supported his arrogance and ego. It is his hand that shaped the features of the statue, and Ozymandias’ domineering nature was put on show, so the statue was more of a mockery than veneration. A tyrant, he built a statue of himself to force the population to exalt his presence, whilst he should have focused his efforts on elevating the people and their standard of living. He did not have generous, giving hands, but instead had vengeful, selfish hands. The king mocked his people and cared less about them than his own image. The “ hand” represents both the king and the sculptor. In “ The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed ”, synecdoche is used to represent the relationship between the sculptor and the king, and by extension, the king and his subjects. Ozymandias used his power to boost his ego, but all that is left is a broken statue with scattered parts. Power should be used for the welfare of the populace, not for the glorification of self. The legacy of the man was no longer his work or his action, but the emotion that he filled the people around him with. All that they gleaned from the statue was that he was cold and dominating. This statue was meant to make sure that he is never forgotten, but neither the poet nor the traveler knew who he was. The sneer, frown, and curled lip show that the king was cruel, and this characteristic of him is what lives on after his death. The sculptor could properly read the soul of the man, and this was perfectly captured in the sculpture. The expression on the face betrayed cruelty and superiority, and it’s clear that this was the true personality of the person who was memorialized. The statue had been destroyed by sand and time and was left sunken and alone in the sand. The traveler saw the remains of a large statue, with two large legs still standing tall, but the broken face lying nearby. The traveler brings back memories of relics left behind that may still be of some value in the present day. He walked through an area that tells stories of a bygone era and calling this place an “ antique land” already shows us that the poem’s subject is set in the past. The speaker narrates a conversation he had with a traveler from a faraway land. The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,Īnd wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Shelley illuminates the transience of Ozymandias' power he had not achieved the legacy he believed he would and instead his works have been reduced to ' Nothing' a pronoun that highlights how forgotten Ozymandias' works have become.Shelley also shows the power of nature over man with cyclical natural imagery, the poem begins in an ' antique land' and 'desert' and ends with the alliterative line 'the lone and level sands stretch far away', Shelley, a romantic poet, highlights how fragile human power is as it can easily be ' shattered' both by the power of time and nature.Who said-“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone This is further highlighted by the semantic field of destruction, 'shattered visage, lifelesss, colossal Wreck" (The capitalisation of the word Wreck works as a transferred epithet -> Ozymandias' identity has gone from being regal to being a wreck).Shelley also uses juxtaposition in the lines "Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair!/ Nothing beside remains. ' King of kings' also alludes to divine power as Ozymandias believed himself to be as or more omnipotent than God.Shelley then uses the technique of irony to highlight how Ozymandias' power has diminished over time reducing him to "trunkless legs of stone". Shelley makes usage of cacophonous alliteration to present the power Ozymandias once had, 'cold command' and 'King of Kings', these suggest Ozymandias was a stern and authoritative ruler. Then we pick out any literary devices Shelley has used that link to power. How does this link to power? Shelley does not use the traditional sonnet form, this could reflect how Ozymandias' power has not survived in a traditional generational sense, the usage of a regular rhyme scheme also highlights how time has passed. Shelley uses a 14 line sonnet in iambic pentameter and a regular rhyme scheme. Firstly we want to highlight any interesting structural devices in the poem and link them to power.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |