Past and Present

Essential question
What can the past teach us?
Genre: Poetry

Features of a sonnet:
● has fourteen lines and
includes a specific rhyme
pattern
● includes pairs of stressed
and unstressed syllables in
each line
● A stressed syllable has a
longer, louder, and higher
sound than the other
syllables in the word
ABABACDCEDEFEF
Genre: Poetry
Features of lyric poetry:
● expresses a speaker’s
thoughts or personal feelings
about something
● has a musical quality but
does not always rhyme
Look at the poem below:
'Cheery and bright
The birds have been singing throughout
the night
I love the smell of crisp, morning air
A lovely day with family I will share'
The author of this poem is in a happy
mood. Look at the kind of words that
support the mood of the poem: cheery,
lovely. Mood is another word for emotion.
Line 1: "I met a traveler from an antique land"

Translation: I met someone who had traveled from a very old place.

Line 2-4: "Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Stand in
the desert. Near them on the sand, / Half sunk, a shattered visage
lies"

Translation: The traveler told me about a statue with two huge legs
and a broken face lying in the desert.
Line 5-8: "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."

Translation: The face on the statue shows a wrinkled lip and a cold,
commanding sneer, indicating that the sculptor understood the king's
feelings. Even though the king is gone, his emotions are still visible in
the statue.
Line 9-12: "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"

Translation: The statue has a message on its base claiming that Ozymandias
was a powerful king, and people should admire his accomplishments. However,
now there is nothing left except for the ruined statue.

Line 13-14: "Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level
sands stretch far away."

Translation: All that's left of Ozymandias' once-great kingdom is a huge pile of

ruins in the endless, empty desert.
Summary:

In a vast desert, a traveler discovers a broken statue. This

statue used to represent a powerful king named
Ozymandias. The poet wants to show how time can
change everything, even powerful kingdoms.
Ten rhymes with
men; took rhymes
with book.
A person’s hard
work will make
him/her proud.