Ozymandias - poet analysis

Wraith Sheppard

Honorable
I've made a similar post about a poem called "i wandered lonely as a cloud" and thx to the AE community I was able to finish the analysis. So, obviously this is another poem which I'm supposed to analyse, but as mentioned in the previous post; I have difficulty analysing topics that have more than one meaning.

Before coming here and asking for help I've made alot of googling but wasn't lucky this time. DU BIST MEINE LAST HOPE :D HALP HALP HALP

POET
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822)

Of the major Romantic poets, Shelley is the one whose reputation has suffered the most. Today, he is mainly remembered for a handful of short poems even though he wrote several long ‘prophetic poems’ too. Shelley was an aristocrat, a traveller and a rebel against society. He also died young, aged only thirty. He was an atheist, anti-government, a believer in free love and a vegetarian.

Shelley was born into a wealthy family in the south of England. He was later expelled from Oxford University for his radical opinions. His private life was controversial. Although a humanitarian in his beliefs, he was impulsive and selfish in his personal life. While still married he fell in love with Mary Godwin (Mary Shelley) and they had an affair, which lasted for two years.

In 1816 while Shelley and Mary were away in Italy, his wife drowned herself in the lake in Hyde Park in London. Shelley and Mary married shortly afterwards.

Shelley died on July 8th, 1822, when his boat capsized in a storm. It was an ironic death as the sea and the storms were two favourite images in his poetry. His body was burnt on the beach, watched by lord Byron and his heart was given to Mary, who carried it with her for the rest of her life.

POEM
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said – ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert… near them, on the sand
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of old command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed


“And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”


Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

TASKS
it is the first question Iam stuck at.
"What the words on the pedestal tell us about Ozymandias"

Understanding the poem
What do the words on the pedestal tell us about Ozymandias?


Language
1. Which words or images in the poem convey the idea of…

a) power and greatness?
b) ruin and destruction?

Discussion
1. ‘”Shelley intended Ozymandias as an ironic comment on Man”. Do you think this is true?


2. Why do you think Shelley used a traveller to tell the story?
 

3FEL9

Islander
How do the other kidz at your school solve their assignments ?

Cant you team up with someone there ?

Just getting answers, will not train your ability to understand complex problems..

And before you lash out at me with anger and tears in your eyes, lol

I hated those poetry tasks aswell in school and tried to find answers online. Or at the library...
But IF I could find a calm place without disturbances from others,, I could solve most parts myself..

OK,, you get alittle plus (+) in your record, for using your social networking skills - reaching out and teamworking with others.
 
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Kchoo

At Peace.
Poetry is like a painting... designed multifaceted... to pull you in and make you ponder... to perhaps make you think about your world in a subtle new way... and to help you see in broader ways.

The challenge of poetry is not to analyze, as much as to grow a little, simply by letting it seep into your consciousness, and allowing your consciousness to form a meaning that is personal to you.

If you ever see something, and it doesn't make sense right away... you can assume it is art, but what is art if not an expression of consciousness?
 

Wraith Sheppard

Honorable
How do the other kidz at your school solve their assignments ?

Cant you team up with someone there ?

Just getting answers, will not train your ability to understand complex problems..

And before you lash out at me with anger and tears in your eyes, lol

I hated those poetry tasks aswell in school and tried to find answers online. Or at the library...
But IF I could find a calm place without disturbances from others,, I could solve most parts myself..

OK,, you get alittle plus (+) in your record, for using your social networking skills - reaching out and teamworking with others.

depressed.png
 

3FEL9

Islander
it is the first question Iam stuck at.
"What the words on the pedestal tell us about Ozymandias"

King of kings. So he is an emperor over a vast region with other kings under him..

Hes Top Dog

Or a drug dealer

funny-kid-test-answers-14.jpg
 
Last edited:

Diva

Honorable
Oh sorry I think the the word "ye" in "...ye Mighty, and despair" means he is referring to the readers not him.
 
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