How does Shelly present power in Ozymandias?

In the poem ‘Ozymandias’, Shelly presents power through various methods: how power
erodes over time because of nature, the arrogance of a king who gained a lot of power as
well as how Ozymandias ruled as a cruel king without caring for his subjects.

The power of time and nature has been revealed by Shelly in the second part of the poem
where ‘Nothing beside remains’. Both the forces of nature and time have worked together
to destroy everything that Ozymandias had created. Shelly has presented a bad negative
image of the king, since he has said earlier that he was the ‘king of kings’ and the mightiest.
There are no works to look on anymore. There is a reversal of the structure of the poem
here. The power of the weak subjects of the king have overpowered the king himself. There
is a break in the structure, a volta. The poet moves from describing the statue to
Ozymandias’ words. Shelly has also used long vowel sounds here, as can be seen in many of
the words; ‘round … decay … boundless … bare … lone … far … away’. The long vowel sounds
in these last few lines emphasise the long length of time that has passed as well as how
desolate the area around the king has become. Even the alliterative ‘lone and level sands’
presents an image symbolic to how all power fades eventually and how nature has power
far greater than man to destroy all of man’s creations. After a long length of time and
exposure to nature, Ozymandias’ creations legacy have been reduced to almost nothing,
thus illustrating the immense power of nature and time.

Shelly has also presented how power can create arrogance in people, as we can see in the
poem by the way that he Ozymandias speaks to other people, regardless of whether they
are inferior or superior equal to him. In the second part of the poem, Ozymandias’ words
are written on the pedestal and say to ‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’. Shelly
has written it as if Ozymandias himself is proclaiming at the readers and making them fell
vulnerable and threatened. Shelly has used the imperative ‘look’ to achieve this. There is
also use of the pronoun ‘my’ in order to get close and personal with the reader. Shelly has
also use irony where he tells the readers to look on his works. The word ‘despair’ shows that
He believes that nobody can create the magnificent things that he has made. However, it is
clear to the readers that nothing beside remains and he is only making a fool of himself. The
fact that he calls himself the ‘kings of kings’ reveals his arrogance since he believes he is far
more superior than the other kings. Through his speech, Ozymandias is seen as an arrogant
being that doesn’t care about other people who feels superior to everybody else.

Shelly has also presented Ozymandias as a cruel king with no respect or care for his subjects.
Shelly reveals this to the reader by describing the statue of Ozymandias as well as by using
many language techniques. Shelly mentioned that its ‘sculptor well those passions read’,
illustrating that the sculptor has been truthful and has made the statue of Ozymandias
identical to how he looked back in the day when he ruled as king. This is useful since we as
readers are able to imagine how he was like. In the desert there is a broken statue with a
‘shattered visage’ whose expression shows a ‘wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command’
Several language devices have been used her to explore the arrogance and cruelty of their
ancient king. The consonance of the ‘l’ in ‘wrinkled lip’ provides graphic details of the
condescension of this ruler to his courtiers. The long vowel sounds in ‘sneer’, ‘cold’ and
‘command’, in addition to the alliteration all highlight the persistent nature of his cruel
mockery.

In the poem, Shelly has shown the power of nature, the arrogance of Ozymandias as well as
the cruelty of kings with power. This poem is a Petrarchan sonnet and is divided into 8 and 6
lines. There is a turning point in line 9 of this sonnet. The first 8 lines was a description of
the statue whereas the last 6 lines have his words.

Targets
Avoid words like bad, good, nice, lots of
Use ‘a multitude of, numerous, many’