Ozymandias: King of Kings: Conflict Poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

creativeconflictwisdom — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:23:25 +0000

Watching the antics of Rupert Murdoch before the British Parliamentary enquiry into his empire, the role of the Koch Brothers and the Super Pacs in US Politics, and the sheer collective incompetence of the conservative elites, who run much of the world political system and its economy, I am reminded of Shelley’s poem Ozymandias:

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 cold 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”.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley

Ozymandias poem

hannahewill66 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:19:22 +0000

Background Information About the Poet:
*Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of the epic poets of the 19th century best known for his classic anthology verse works such as Ode to the West Wind and The Masque of Anarchy.
*English Romantic poet whose passionate search for personal love and social justice was gradually channeled from overt actions into poems that rank with the greatest in the English language.
*Shelley was the heir to rich estates acquired by his grandfather, Bysshe (pronounced “Bish”) Shelley. Timothy Shelley, the poet’s father, was a weak, conventional man who was caught between an overbearing father and a rebellious son. The young Shelley was educated at Syon House Academy (1802–04) and then at Eton (1804–10), where he resisted physical and mental bullying by indulging in imaginative escapism and literary pranks.
*Born Aug. 4, 1792, Field Place, near Horsham, Sussex, England
*He drowned in a sudden storm while sailing in 1822.

Diction:
* “sneer of cold command”
* “colossal wreck”

Form and Pattern of Organization:

Denotation:
A man meets a traveler who discusses his findings of a statue and plaque in a desert that never ends.

Connotation of words, phrases, all poetic devices, and title:
Personification- “The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.” Kind of a way to describe the destruction brought by man
Alliteration- “boundless and bare” stressing how ancient and never ending it seems in the desert?
The title is soley Ozymandias to let the reader know that he’s the subject and that’s who the poem revolves around.

Syntax/sentence structure:

Tone:

Contrasts, stated and implied:

Universal message(theme):
This poem is about

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Ozymandias: King of Kings: Conflict Poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Ozymandias poem