tugas poetry

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I was trying to analysis the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley using Structuralism.

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.

Analysis:

this poem’s ability to convey several different meanings, In addition to telling an intriguing story, this poem also contains an insightful moral.

The name of the poem, “Ozymandias,” is generally believed to refer to Ramesses the Great, Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. The sonnet includes a paraphrase of the inscription found on the base of the statue. This message reads, "King of Kings am I, Ozymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works."

In the first line “I met a traveller from an antique land...” the author recalling a time when he met a traveler from an “antique” land. Antique is a symbol for the ancient land of Egypt.

In the line,” two vast and trunkless legs of stand in the desert” an enjambment is used. Imagery is used to paint a picture of the remnants of Ramses’ II Egyptian Empire. “Two trunkless legs of stone” are the only remains of a stone statue modeled after Ramses that was once 57ft tall (I get the source from Wikipedia). There is no longer a body or a torso, only two legs standing on a pedestal.

“Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown…” is what used to be the statue’s face. The face is described to have a “frown and wrinkled lip and a “sneer of cold command”. These descriptions are symbols of Ramses’ II personality. From the frown and sneer on his face, we can conclude that he was an angry and fierce ruler.

“Tell that its sculptor well those passions read” it was an anastrophe. The sculptor was able to capture Ramses II personality and who he truly was through the statue’s facial expressions.

In the line: “The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed” the author uses alliteration with the letter “t”. Also, Shelley uses the word mock as a pun. In this case, mock is meant to mean both created and ridiculed. In the phrase, “the heart that fed” the heart symbolizes Ramses’ II emotions and passions and fed is used as a metaphor, because the heart did not literally feed the emotions and passions to the statue.

“My name is Ozymandias King of Kings look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” When broken down the Greek name Ozymandias has an interesting meaning. The root Ozy means air and the root Mandias means to rule. So, Ozymandias literally means “ruler of air”. This is ironic because there is truly nothing left of Ozymandias’ empire but air. This name mocks Ramses II and ridicules his rule and works. King of Kings is an allusion to Jesus and symbolizes how important Ramses II thought himself to be. Through the engraving, Ramses II dared someone to challenge him and his works. However, whoever dared to challenge him would end up defeated and hopeless.

In the lines, “Round the decay of that colossal wreck boundless and bare.” that true irony, The engraving on the pedestal no longer applies, because his works are vanished and destroyed, he is no longer the “King of Kings”.

The last line “the lone and level sands stretch far away” really captures the irony of the sonnet. The once large empire is now just an empty desert, with nothing more than sand for miles and miles. Apart from the destroyed statue there is no other sign that in this desert, there was once a huge and powerful empire.

In addition, the poem Ozymandias follows an interesting and unique rime scheme of ABABACDCEDEFEF. This can be broken down into a somewhat simpler interlocking rime scheme of ABABA CDC EDE FEF. There is some use of half rhymes in words such as “stone” and “frown,” as well as “appear” and “despair.”