Name:____________________________
Answer the margin questions based on your reading of the poem.
Ozymandias=a Greek name for the
Egyptian
pharaoh Ramses II, who reigned
from 1279 to 1213 B.C.
Define visage based on context.
The “two vast and trunkless legs of
stone” (line 2) belong to
__________________
a. the sculptor
b. the traveler
c. the shattered statue
d. none of the above
Line 3 contains an example of
__________________.
a. metaphor b. alliteration c.
internal rhyme d. personification
Analyze the poem’s most
ambiguous line, “The hand that
mocked them and the heart that
fed.” Whose hand and heart is the
poem referring to? What is being
mocked, and by whom?
What are the general properties of a
sonnet? Have you read any sonnets
before? What name(s) do you generally
associate with the writing of sonnets?
​Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveler 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, What do you think is the message of
The hand that mocked them, and the this sonnet? What is Shelley
heart that fed​: communicating, either directly or
And on the pedestal these words indirectly, about the nature of power
appear: and the passage of time?
“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​.
 Name:____________________________
Answer the margin questions based on your reading of the poem.
Compare the “temporary” versus
the “permanent” in this sonnet.
Based on this comparison, what
things in life are ephemeral and
what things last forever?
DEVELOP a connection between
the poem and another text you
have read, movie you have
watched, or historical event you
know about.
​Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Consider the role of interpretation in
I met a traveler from an antique land this sonnet: the sculptor “interprets”
Who said: Two vast and ​trunkless Ozymandias in his work; the sculpture
legs​ of stone is then interpreted by the traveler,
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, whose story is then interpreted by the
on the sand, poet. What meaning can we derive
Half sunk, a shattered ​visage ​lies, from these different interpretations on
whose frown, display? By giving us these different
perspectives, what do you think Shelley
And wrinkled lip, and ​sneer​ of cold
is trying to say?
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​.