Literature Poetry

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley: Scansion

A complete scansion of the poem

Ozymandias

Thank you to Hammered Critic and Poemshape for their scansion of this poem.

My interpretation is slightly different. The meter is iambic pentameter with 8 trochees and one spondee. The spondee in line 10 is clear if you listen to Bryan Cranston’s reading on YouTube.

I am open to any feedback if you have a different interpretation.

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

met / trav/ler from / an an/tique land
Who said, / Two vast / and trunk/less legs / of stone
Stand
 in / the des/ert. Near / them, on / the sand,
Half sunk / a shat/tered vis/age lies, / whose frown,
and wrink/led lip, / and sneer / of cold / command
Tell 
that / its sculp/tor well / those pas/sions read,
Which yet / survive, stamped on / these life/less things,
The hand / that mocked / them,  and / the heart / that fed;
And on / the ped/estal, / these words / appear:
My
 name / is Oz/yman / dias, King / of Kings;
Look
 on / my works, / ye Migh/ty, and / despair!
Nothing / beside / remains. Round the / decay
Of that / colos/sal wreck, boundless / and bare,
The lone / and lev/el sands stretch far / away.

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