1: OZYMANDIUS - Percy Bysshe Shelley

myriad

consisting of a great number

nadir

the lowest point of something

nominal

trifling, insignificant

Greek name for a pharaoh

title - identity is twisted

nameless person telling the story told to them by a traveller

address and speaker - little importance, second hand - interpretation

an antique land

old and past prime and valuable and passed down (quote)

half sunk, a shattered visage lies

half power lost, face - broken - identity obscured

sneer of cold command

alliteration, cruel leader

tell that its sculptor well those passions read

realistic, expression shown clearly, skill carried through time, interpretation from sculptor

which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things

alliteration, aggressive, juxtaposes fallen empire, can’t do anything

sonnet

14 lines, all except 10 have 10 syllables

‘my name is Ozymandius, King of kings:

11 syllables - power stands out

look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’

double meaning, nothing around in present (exclamation)

nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck

surrounded by nothing - leader of nothing = no power, grand ideas that have fallen so far double meaning

the lone and level sands stretch far away

sibilance, harsh sounds, emphasises the emptiness

a shattered visage lies

double meaning, in the sand, pedestal claims to be King of kings but there is no more empire or Ozymandius - his identity is fractured

two vast and trunkless legs of stone

no chest = heartless - cruel, gutless - cowardly, weak