Information stations!

Take your book with you around

the room and copy down the six
pieces of information about
sonnets
What have we learned about the sonnet
form and how does it effect the meaning of
a poem?
LO: to understand the theme of personal power in
Ozymandias
 What are you most proud of in
your life? Why?

LO: to understand the theme of personal power in

Ozymandias
Tell me this
man’s story:

• Where does he
come from?
• What is he like?
• What is he most
proud of?
 Task: Write down key pieces of
contextual information
• Ozymandias is a sonnet written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817.

• It is based on an Egyptian Pharaoh called Ramesses II. This Pharaoh was a

hugely powerful tyrant and ordered a statue of himself to be made. On this
statue he had the words inscribed ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’. He believed himself to be god-
like and indestructible. But as we know, time is more powerful than even
the strongest man.

• Shelley was a ‘Romantic’ poet, which means that he rebelled against

political structures of power and control, such as the 19 th century
government.

• Shelley’s poem explores the idea that ‘Power’ is only temporary and
therefore so are the people and structures that wield it. The power of the
pharaohs of Egypt had seemed eternal, but now this once-great empire was
(and had long been) in ruins.
 THEME: POWER OF NATURE

Ozymandias
Why has the poet written in the sonnet form?
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."
 Second hand account – creates distance. Suggests something
Links to the power of Ramesses old or precious

Without a body; the

statue is in ruins
Highlightt I met a traveller from an antique land
he size ofWho said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
the statue
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 face
Alliteration of the
emphasises statue is
arrogance shattered
– even
Juxtaposition – contrast powerful
between human emotions of the humans
THEME: POWER OF ruler and the cold statue cannot
stop time
NATURE
 THEME:
Suggests a cruelness about Ramesses POWER OF Repetition –
NATURE highlights
arrogance
and
He is aggression
unreachable
The hand
– far•higher
Themes thatand
– power mocked
time. Thethem,
ruinedand the
statue heart
shows how
than them
achievements by humans that
arefed:
insignificant compared to the
And on the pedestalpassing these
of time.words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
• The poem flows like a natural speech, but there is an unusual
rhyme Look onThis
scheme. mysuggests
works,a lack
ye Mighty,
of balanceand
as seen with
the Ozymandias anddespair!'
his proud and boastful nature.
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
IronicOf
– the that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
ruins are
The lone and level sands stretchAlliteration
the only far away."
– emphasises the
thing left of
The desert is vast and survives feeling of empty space in the
his
for longer than the broken statue desert
boasting
Create a key question based on this poem

For example:

• What are the connotations of the

adjective ‘shatter’d’ in this poem
and what can we learn about the
fall from power through this
choice of language?
 Peer teaching

• Swap your question with your

shoulder partner.

• Have a go at answering their question

• You are the teacher – help your

partner to write a good answer.
Caption this photo using a
poetic technique.
LO: to explore the use of sounds in poems about power and nature

Sound techniques in poetry

Mind-map ideas
about the poem
from its title.

Consider:
• WHAT it might
be about
• HOW it links
with theme of
Storm on the Island power
• WHAT emotions
you might
expect
• WHAT
connotations the
word choices
carry
THEME: POWER OF
NATURE
LO: to explore the use of sounds in poems about power and nature

Think about the atmosphere created by the sounds

of the storm and the choice of quotes you have just
read.
“tragic chorus”
Core: WHAT
“bombarded” emotions has the use
of noise and sound
“pummels your house” created?

“empty air” Challenge: HOW

does sound make us
react as readers?
“flung spray hits”

“nothing”
THEME: POWER OF
“spits like a tame cat turned savage” NATURE
LO: to explore the use of sounds in poems about power and nature

Storm on the Island

1. Read the poem. Key words:
Alliteration
Sibilance
Assonance
2. Identify words and Onomatopoeia
Repetition
phrases that create Enjambment
certain sounds. Atmosphere
Mood

3. Annotate how each of

the sound techniques
create emotive
reactions in the reader.
THEME: POWER OF
NATURE
 Example
annotation for Sibilance – the
repetition of the
sound
Storm on the Island ‘s’ sound could
sound like the
Vocabulary storm far away,
We are prepared: we build our houses squat,
waves on the
Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.
Words Description rocks, or reflect
The wizened earth had never troubled us
wizened dried up,
the cat hissing
With hay, so as you can see, there are no stacks image from later
(line 3) shrivelled
Or stooks that can be lost. Nor are there trees in the poem. The
stacks / haystacks /
stooks (lines shocks of Which might prove company when it blows full reader could feel
4/5) corn sheaves Blast: you know what I mean - leaves and branches unsettled.
bombards, Can raise a tragic chorus in a gale
harasses So that you can listen to the thing you fear
strafes (line
with
17) Forgetting that it pummels your house too.
artillery
shells But there are no trees, no natural shelter.
simultaneou You might think that the sea is company,
salvo (line
s firing of
17)
artillery Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs
But no: when it begins, the flung spray hits
The very windows, spits like a tame cat
Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind dives
And strafes invisibly. Space is a salvo.
We are bombarded by the empty air.
THEME: POWER OF Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.

NATURE
• Do you think the speaker lives on the
island? Why/why not?
• What’s the effect of describing the ‘leaves
and branches’ as a ‘tragic chorus’?
• Why do you think the poet addresses the
reader directly? What effect does it have on
you?
• What is the effect of comparing the sea to a
‘tame cat/turned savage’?
LO: to explore HOW writers use emotive language to engage the reader in poems about
the power of nature

Emotive Language
Core: List some
adjectives to describe
the two pictures

Challenge: How do
the two pictures
compare?

Super Challenge:
What is the link to
power in these two
images?
LO: to explore HOW writers use emotive language to engage the reader in poems about
the power of nature

The Romantics (WHEN)

• 1800-1850 (ish)
• Emphasised the emotions as the most
important part of experience
• Believed in individuality and that we all have
unique individual experiences and emotions
• Believed that humans were inherently linked
with nature and should feel awe, inspiration
and terror from spending time with nature
LO: to explore HOW writers use emotive language to engage the reader in poems about
the power of nature

Emotive Language
Core: Explain what
emotions the pictures
make you feel

Challenge: Explore
how the pictures link
to individuality and
emotions

Super Challenge: Link

the pictures to the
Romantic ideas of
emotions,
individuality and
nature
LO: to explore HOW writers use emotive language to engage the reader in poems about
the power of nature

‘The Prelude’ in Pictures

Find quotations from Wordsworth’s (a

Romantic poet) ‘Prelude’ to match the
picture.

WHAT is the story happening in the poem?

Once you have worked out the story, tell it
to your partner.
THEME: POWER OF NATURE
The Prelude in pictures
2.
1.

3. 4. 5.
 The Prelude in pictures
7.
6.

8. 9.
“My boat move[d] on, leaving behind “I struck and struck again”
her […] small circles glittering idly in
the moonlight”

“it seemed […] like a living thing, (it) “but after I had seen that spectacle […]
strode after me” over my thoughts there hung a
darkness”

“I fixed my view upon the summit of a “my boat went heaving through the
craggy ridge” water like a swan”

“the grim shape towered up between “I found a little boat tied to a willow
me and the stars” tree”

“from behind that craggy steep […] a

huge peak, black and huge […]
upreared its head”
1. “I found a little boat tied to a willow 6. “I struck and struck again”
tree”

2. “My boat move[d] on, leaving 7. “the grim shape towered up

behind her […] small circles glittering between me and the stars”
idly in the moonlight”

3. “I fixed my view upon the summit 8. “it seemed […] like a living thing,
of a craggy ridge” (it) strode after me”

4. “my boat went heaving through the 9. “but after I had seen that spectacle
water like a swan” […] over my thoughts there hung a
darkness”

5. “from behind that craggy steep […]

a huge peak, black and huge […]
upreared its head”
LO: to explore HOW writers use emotive language to engage the reader in poems about
the power of nature

HOW does Wordsworth use emotive

language?
Key words: emotive
language, Romantics

In pairs:
1. Identify the emotions that Wordsworth is
feeling at different stages of the poem.
2. Underline the key emotive language that
suggests those emotions.
3. Link your quotations to the key ideas of the
Romantics – emotions, individuality and
nature.