Ozymandias

“Ozymandias” is a sonnet, a poetic form consisting of 14 lines of iambic pentameter. Though the poem might seem rigid and formal on the surface, it represents an innovative departure from other sonnets of its time. While Shelley’s contemporaries (like John Keats) largely adhered to the rhetorical rules and patterns codified by William Shakespeare’s treatment of the sonnet, Shelley experimented. He invented his own unique rhyme scheme for “Ozymandias” (ABABA CDCEDEFEF) and did away with the octet (eight lines rhyming ABBAABBA) and sestet (six lines rhyming CDCDCD or CDECDE) structure popularized by the Italian poet Petrarch.

The poem’s meter is more typical. Most lines consist of five iambs, a metrical foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. A typical line of “Ozymandias” scans like this, with the stressed syllables in bold:

I met | a trave- | ller from | an an- | tique land (Line 1)

Irony is the expression of one’s meaning using language that typically communicates the opposite. In literature, irony can be understood as a technique that can communicate humor, wry understanding, and/or emphasis that is not obvious to the reader at first glance.