While the poem’s tone, speaker, and choice of words serve as the basic outline for the poem, poetic sound devices give poems a special musical quality, which also contributes to the theme. You might have heard of devices such as alliteration, rhyme, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia; all these give poetic verses that special sound quality. You’ll explore these devices in this interactivity.
Ozymandias Tab:
Present the entire poem here.
Show 4 titles with a hotspot next to each. On clicking the hotspot next to each title, display the following text in the pop-ups.
On clicking Rhyme:
The poem follows a strange rhyme scheme of ababacdcedefef which doesn’t fit into any standard sonnet rhyming pattern.
Take a look at how the rhyming words in the poem carry the theme:
“land”/”sand”: By reading just these two words, you’ll understand that the land that’s being described is a desert. These help reiterate how “nothing else remains” of Ozymandias’ kingdom, except for sand.
“read”/”fed”: Shelley venerates the sculptor who perfectly recreated or “read” the kings expression; and in a way “fed” could mean that he enlarged the king’s ego. This brings out two themes; one of impermanent art and the other of pride going to a fall.
“things”/”kings”: These words contribute to the theme of impermanence of earthly “things” including once powerful “kings.”
“despair”/”bare”: These rhymes bring out the theme of desolation since there’s only “despair” now that everything is “bare.”
You’ll also notice the presence of half-rhymes or imperfect rhymes in “stone”/”frown” and “appear”/”bare”
On clicking Assonance:
Assonance:
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
Particularly explain the sound devices in the last 2-3 lines of the poem e.g. the assonance and alliteration in “Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,” emphasizes the vastness and desolation of the desert surrounding the statue of Ozymandias.
On clicking Alliteration:
Mention extensive use of alliteration e.g.
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.
Explain how the alliteration “lone” and “level” and “sands” and “stretch” contribute to the image of the desert and add to the theme of desolation as all that remains is the vast stretches of sand.
Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio Tab
Read the poem Hony Tonk in Celeveland, Ohio