Oxymandias Essay

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NAME: JERISHKA PILLAY STUDENT NUMBER: 54944791 UNIQUE CODE: 871775 ENG1501 ASSIGNMENT 01 NAME: JERISHKA PILLAY STUDENT NUMBER: 54944791 MODULE: ENG1501 UNIQUE CODE: 871775 ASSIGNMENT 01 NAME: JERISHKA PILLAY STUDENT NUMBER: 54944791 UNIQUE CODE: 871775 ENG1501 ASSIGNMENT 01 The sonnet “Ozymandias”, is the sharing of encounters between the speaker and a traveller, was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley during the 80’s, and is set in the antique land of the ruins – Egypt. The poem is about a stone masterpiece that was created of the great Ozymandias who is said to have been acknowledged as the famous Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II. Pharaoh Ozymandias was an extremely cruel, unsympathetic and an unkind royal being, and it is because of his royal background and being the third pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty of Egypt he was known as the most powerful and eminent pharaoh of the Egyptian empire. The speaker is able to draw to this conclusion because in lines 4-5 (half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown; and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command…) the narrator being the traveller describes the physical appearance of the “Shattered visage”. The visage or face of the statue is partially buried in the sand however it isn’t completely “shattered”; one can still notice the “frown”, “wrinkled lip” and “sneer” of the stone bust. The sculptor highlighted not only the physical features but also the personality of the pharaoh because Ozymandias thought he was mightier than everyone else including god. The power of ruling the land of Egypt made him arrogant and conceited making him think that he had it all. “Passion” is having a drive and desire for something and Ozymandias had the “passion” to be powerful like god. In lines 6 and 7: “tell that its sculptor well those passions read; which yet survived, stamped on these lifeless things…” the poet becomes clearer and shows the
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