The poem"Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a sonnet: a fourteen-line poem metered in iambic
pentameter. The rhyme scheme of this poem is somewhat unusual for a sonnet of this era; it does not fit a
conventional Petrarch and pattern, but instead interlinks the octave.
In Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias", the use of various devices such as imagery, figurative
language, and sound devices embody the meaning of the poem suggesting that art and language long
outlast other legacies of power.
As in the line 4, a synecdoche is used when the author uses the word "visage" to represent the statue's
head. A synecdoche is when one part of any object describes an entire thing, object, or person. Also, in
line 4 where the author is talking about the head of the statue of Ozymandias is "shatter'd" and partially
buried in the sand this wording gives the reader an image of a destroyed/ruined statue forgotten in the
sand. It also helps the reader visualize what the poem will be discussing and inflicts sad feelings.
In line 6-7, there are there words that start with the letter "s". That tells us that it’s being alliteration
because the use of multiple words starting with the same letter is called alliteration. Although, in the line
8, the hand" is another example of synecdoche. The hand stands for the whole: the sculptor.
In Line 13-14: The traveler calls our attention to the desert's bare disposition through the use of
alliteration: "boundless and bare," "lone and level," "sands stretch."
In Line 13, the poem again reminds us that there is a huge statue in the desert that is now a "colossal
wreck." The reader also begins to think of reasons where the shattered statue came from and what its
significance was when it was first made. It wasn't just made to sit half buried in sand! This line gives food
for thought.
The poem "Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a sonnet: a fourteen-line poem metered in iambic
pentameter. The rhyme scheme of this poem is somewhat unusual for a sonnet of this era; it does not fit a
conventional Petrarch and pattern, but instead interlinks the octave.
In Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias", the use of various devices such as imagery, figurative
language, and sound devices embody the meaning of the poem suggesting that art and language long
outlast other legacies of power.
As in the line 4, a synecdoche is used when the author uses the word "visage" to represent the statue's
head. A synecdoche is when one part of any object describes an entire thing, object, or person. Also, in
line 4 where the author is talking about the head of the statue of Ozymandias is "shattered" and partially
buried in the sand this wording gives the reader an image of a destroyed/ruined statue forgotten in the
sand. It also helps the reader visualize what the poem will be discussing and inflicts sad feelings.
In line 6-7, there are there words that start with the letter "s". That tells us that it’s being alliteration
because the use of multiple words starting with the same letter is called alliteration. Although, in the line
8, the hand" is another example of synecdoche. The hand stands for the whole: the sculptor.
In Line 13-14: The traveler calls our attention to the desert's bare disposition through the use of
alliteration: "boundless and bare," "lone and level," "sands stretch."
In Line 13, the poem again reminds us that there is a huge statue in the desert that is now a "colossal
wreck." The reader also begins to think of reasons where the shattered statue came from and what its
significance was when it was first made. It wasn't just made to sit half buried in sand! This line gives food
for thought.