Question

What poetic devices has the poet use to write poem ozymandias?

Answer 1

Answer:

Metaphor, Personification, Imagery, Alliteration, Enjambment, Assonance, Irony, Consonance

Explanation:

1)    Metaphor:  There is one extended metaphor used in the poem. The statue of Ozymandias metaphorically represents power, legacy, and command. It clarifies the meanings of the object and makes it clear that once the king was mighty and all-powerful.  It also shows that the sand has eroded the actual shape of the statue, representing the destructive power of time.

2)    Personification: Shelley has used personification that means to use human emotions for inanimate objects. He has used personification twice in the poem. The fifth line “And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,” refers to the broken head of the statue. However, the lifeless statue Ozymandias is referred to as a real person. The second example is in the sixth line of the poem where “Tell that its sculptor well those passions read” shows as if the statue is commanding the sculptor how to carve or express his emotions.

3)    Imagery: Imagery is used to make the reader feel things through five senses. The poet has used images involving a sense of sights such as two vast and trunk-less legs, shattered face, wrinkled lip and desert. These images help readers visualize the status of the broken statue.

4)    Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines of the poetry such as the use of /c/ in “cold command”, the sound of /b/ in “boundless and bear” and the sound of /l/ in “lone and level.

5)    Enjambment: The term enjambment refers to lines that end without any punctuation marks. Shelley has used enjambments in the second and sixth line of the poem where it is stated, “Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone” and “Tell that its sculptor well those passions read”.

6)    Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of the vowel sounds in the same line such as the sounds of /a/ in “stand and sand” and sound of /e/ in “well and read.”

7)    Irony: Irony is a figure of speech used to present the opposite meanings of the words. Ozymandias’s description presents him as a mighty, great and fierce king but in reality, there is nothing but a broken, lifeless statue.

8)    Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds such as /s/ in “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown”.