Character and Voice Poems

1. Childhood imaginary friend

Annotations:

• Compares with: My Last Duchess, River God All the poems have one clear, distinct voice.Each poem is built around a character who has some distinctly unpleasant qualities.All of the poems are about power in some sense. Ozymandias was incredibly powerful in his time but is now merely a remnant of the past, the Duke is powerful in the society of his time and perhaps demonstrated his personal power by killing his wife, the River God exerts his power through drowning people.None of the characters actually exists in the real sense (Ozymandias is ancient history). The Duke himself and even his title died out centuries ago. The River God is a mythical creation.The characters in each poem clearly display a dark side to their nature.

1. Sonnet (14 lines)
2. Told from two perspectives; the narrator's and the traveller's.
3. Statue of Ozymandias used to represent power and greatness
   1. 'king of kings'
   2. 'vast'
4. Now represents the power of time
   1. 'colossal wreck'
   2. 'sunk'
   3. 'shattered'
   4. 'lifeless'
5. We don't really sympathise with Ozymandias
   1. 'cold command'
   2. 'sneer'
   3. 'hand that mocked them'
6. Themes
   1. Pride comes before a fall
   2. Power of art

1. Dramatic dialogue
2. Six quatrains; regular rhyme scheme
3. Contrasting imagery to show 'Melia's old life vs. new life
   1. 'in tatters, without shoes or socks;
   2. 'gay bracelets and bright feathers three!'
4. Repetition of 'ruined' at the end of each quatrain
5. Themes
   1. Morality
   2. Women in society