[quotes and analysis]
Ozymandias:
‘Look upon my works, ye Mighty and despair!’
- Imperative ‘look’ establishes his tyrannical power + his control over others
- Exclamatory : places emphasis on his PERCEIVED power, reinforcing his position as
a tyrannical leader
- Possessive pronoun ‘my’ : he claims others’ work as his own, feigning his power and
showcasing his hubris (arrogance)
- ‘Mighty’ may have religious allusions / a reference to God. Therefore its blasphemic +
Ozymandias believes he has the same magnitude of power as God
‘Half sunken, a shattered visage lies‘
- Sibilance: hissing tone: the speaker may be critical of the domineering control of the
ruler // creates an ominous tone: as all life succumbs to time and nature
- Symbolism: the shattered visage is a symbol of his loss of power - ironic due to his
earlier arrogance + assertions of power
- Adjective ‘half-sunken’ prefix, he is still remembered, however in a negative light:
further opposing his cruel authority
- Double entendres of “lies” could refer to his lies (refer back to him larping other
people making his statue) + physically lying there
‘The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed’
- Personification of the heart; reinforces the greed of Ozymandias
- Dual meaning of ‘mocked’ - creation of the sculptor, but also that Ozymandias
himself mocked people due to his arrogance
- ‘Heart that fed’: he ‘fed’ his inner desires and gluttony by extorting it out of others
‘Boundless and bare/ the lone and level sands stretch far away.’
- plosive alliteration ‘boundless and bare’ reveals the vastness and power of nature &
it’s ability to outlive all other creation as it is ‘boundless’ and timeless
- lateral alliteration: emphasises the feeling of empty space around him in the desert
- sibilance : nature is everlasting + which shows ozymandias’ insignificance as he is not
timeless
Structure:
> one singular stanza : could reflect his tyranny
> 14-line sonnet , traditionally used in love poems. This contrasts with the actual contents
and highlights his hubris
Context:
> Shelley was a romantic poet: believed in the power of nature over man
> Inspired by both Ramses II and King George II
, Bayonet Charge:
‘Suddenly he awoke and was running — raw’
- Opens in media res, initiating the poem with tension and reflects the reality of war
+ imitates waking up into action
- Rhotic alliteration: discomforting sound reflects the constant unease of the soldiers
- adjective ‘raw’ suggests the soldiers’ inexperience and lack of preparation
‘Bullets snacking the belly out of the air’
- Plosive alliteration mirrors the violent imageryh + the sound and impacts of gunfire
- Personifies the air, the war affects even the environment
- metaphor creates a tense + violent atmosphere and alludes to someone being
wounded and unable to breathe (??)
‘The patriotic tear… sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest’
- metaphor of a ‘patriotic tear’ reveals how soldiers fight under the illusion of
patriotism and honour, however once he arrives in the battlefield the effects of
propaganda wear off as he realises the true horrors of war
- simile comparing sweating to ‘molten iron’ —> iron is used in machinery and reveals
the dehumanisation of soldiers into killing machines in war
- juxtaposition between the patriotism and it transformed into pain and fear, heroic
ideas morphed into harsh reality/ the disillusionment of war
- imagery of the earth’s inner core conveys how deeply ingrained the patriotic ideals
are within the soldiers
‘King, honour, human dignity, etcetera/ dropped like luxuries’
- verb ‘dropped’: soldiers have completely abandoned their previously upheld values
and motivation
- asyndetic listing describing values show how soldiers gain honour from fighting,
however when faced by the prospect of death, these values are dropped like luxuries +
futility of war
- ‘etcetera’ diminishes the values of his motivation
Exposure:
‘Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knife us’
- collective noun ‘our’ shows the shared suffering of the soldiers
- dual meaning of ‘brains’ aching, physically and psychologically
- sibilance: could reciprocate the slashing of bullets and the wind, intensifying the
predicament of the situation and the constant warfare around them
- personification of the wind attacking them: feels personal and purposeful and instills
a sense of fear in the soldiers
‘Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’
Ozymandias:
‘Look upon my works, ye Mighty and despair!’
- Imperative ‘look’ establishes his tyrannical power + his control over others
- Exclamatory : places emphasis on his PERCEIVED power, reinforcing his position as
a tyrannical leader
- Possessive pronoun ‘my’ : he claims others’ work as his own, feigning his power and
showcasing his hubris (arrogance)
- ‘Mighty’ may have religious allusions / a reference to God. Therefore its blasphemic +
Ozymandias believes he has the same magnitude of power as God
‘Half sunken, a shattered visage lies‘
- Sibilance: hissing tone: the speaker may be critical of the domineering control of the
ruler // creates an ominous tone: as all life succumbs to time and nature
- Symbolism: the shattered visage is a symbol of his loss of power - ironic due to his
earlier arrogance + assertions of power
- Adjective ‘half-sunken’ prefix, he is still remembered, however in a negative light:
further opposing his cruel authority
- Double entendres of “lies” could refer to his lies (refer back to him larping other
people making his statue) + physically lying there
‘The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed’
- Personification of the heart; reinforces the greed of Ozymandias
- Dual meaning of ‘mocked’ - creation of the sculptor, but also that Ozymandias
himself mocked people due to his arrogance
- ‘Heart that fed’: he ‘fed’ his inner desires and gluttony by extorting it out of others
‘Boundless and bare/ the lone and level sands stretch far away.’
- plosive alliteration ‘boundless and bare’ reveals the vastness and power of nature &
it’s ability to outlive all other creation as it is ‘boundless’ and timeless
- lateral alliteration: emphasises the feeling of empty space around him in the desert
- sibilance : nature is everlasting + which shows ozymandias’ insignificance as he is not
timeless
Structure:
> one singular stanza : could reflect his tyranny
> 14-line sonnet , traditionally used in love poems. This contrasts with the actual contents
and highlights his hubris
Context:
> Shelley was a romantic poet: believed in the power of nature over man
> Inspired by both Ramses II and King George II
, Bayonet Charge:
‘Suddenly he awoke and was running — raw’
- Opens in media res, initiating the poem with tension and reflects the reality of war
+ imitates waking up into action
- Rhotic alliteration: discomforting sound reflects the constant unease of the soldiers
- adjective ‘raw’ suggests the soldiers’ inexperience and lack of preparation
‘Bullets snacking the belly out of the air’
- Plosive alliteration mirrors the violent imageryh + the sound and impacts of gunfire
- Personifies the air, the war affects even the environment
- metaphor creates a tense + violent atmosphere and alludes to someone being
wounded and unable to breathe (??)
‘The patriotic tear… sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest’
- metaphor of a ‘patriotic tear’ reveals how soldiers fight under the illusion of
patriotism and honour, however once he arrives in the battlefield the effects of
propaganda wear off as he realises the true horrors of war
- simile comparing sweating to ‘molten iron’ —> iron is used in machinery and reveals
the dehumanisation of soldiers into killing machines in war
- juxtaposition between the patriotism and it transformed into pain and fear, heroic
ideas morphed into harsh reality/ the disillusionment of war
- imagery of the earth’s inner core conveys how deeply ingrained the patriotic ideals
are within the soldiers
‘King, honour, human dignity, etcetera/ dropped like luxuries’
- verb ‘dropped’: soldiers have completely abandoned their previously upheld values
and motivation
- asyndetic listing describing values show how soldiers gain honour from fighting,
however when faced by the prospect of death, these values are dropped like luxuries +
futility of war
- ‘etcetera’ diminishes the values of his motivation
Exposure:
‘Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knife us’
- collective noun ‘our’ shows the shared suffering of the soldiers
- dual meaning of ‘brains’ aching, physically and psychologically
- sibilance: could reciprocate the slashing of bullets and the wind, intensifying the
predicament of the situation and the constant warfare around them
- personification of the wind attacking them: feels personal and purposeful and instills
a sense of fear in the soldiers
‘Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’
