The poetic devices in the poem are :
1. A symbol is literary device that contains
several layers of meaning, often concealed at first
sight, and is representative of several other
aspects, concepts or traits than those that are
visible in the literal translation alone. Symbol is
using an object or action that means something
more than its literal meaning.
In Shelley’s work, the statue of the ancient
Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, or Ozymandias,
symbolizes political tyranny. In “Ozymandias,”
(1817) the statue is broken into pieces and
stranded in an empty desert, which suggests that
tyranny is temporary and also that no political
leader, particularly an unjust one, can hope to
have lasting power or real influence. The broken
monument also represents the decay of
civilization and culture: the statue is, after all, a
human construction, a piece of art made by a
creator, and now it—and its creator—have been
destroyed, as all living things are eventually
destroyed.
2. Alliteration- cold command- the harsh sound
emphasize the harshness of Ozymandias's
personality.
Boundless and bare, lone and level.
3. Anastrophe- inversion of normal word order.
eg- “well those passions read” (could normally be
written as – read those passions well.
4. Irony- Shelly usees irony when he lets
Ozymandias speak for himself by reporting the
inscription carved on the dead king's crumbled
statue:
My name is ozymandias...........and despair!”
The statue was intended to project greatness but
when the onlooker sees it, it is not only shattered
but it lies in the middle of a waste land.
5. Synecdoche - a figure of speech in which a
part is made to represent the whole or vice versa,
as in England lost by six wickets (meaning ‘ the
English cricket team’).
EXAMPLES: The word “bread” can be used to
represent food in general or money (e.g. he is the
breadwinner; music is my bread and butter).
• The word “sails” is often used to refer to a
whole ship.
• The phrase "hired hands" can be used to refer
to workmen.
The head of the statue is "shatter'd" and partially
buried in the sand. "Visage" is a stand-in for the
statue's head. (The use of one part of any object
or entity to describe the whole is called
synecdoche.)
The "hand that mock'd" is another reference to
the sculptor and the work of imitation he
performs. "Hand" is another example of
synecdoche, in which a part (the hand) stands in
for the whole (the sculptor).
6. Imagery- creates highly specific images
through words.
“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand
Half sunk........sneer of cold command”
7. Oxymoron- colossal wreck.
si-nek-de-cee
