How Is Meter Used In Ozymandias

Rhythm is a fundamental element of poetry created by meter. The patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables gives poems a musical quality that generally increases the pleasure of reading them. We as humans naturally find rhythms in life, and some poets appeals to this by creating an easy rhythm to follow. However, meter is also a powerful tool that poets have to help them better convey their intentions. Poems can have a consistent meter to help set the pace, but they can also metrical variations that can act as a pivot for a change in tone, or to draw attention to a particular idea. This is what rhythm and meter is for. They are not used as a foundation for conveying emotions, nor are they used to dictate the tone or to solely communicate
Meter can allow a poem to emulate one of the ideas inside of a poem. An example of this can be seen with Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet Ozymandias. This poem, written mostly in iambic pentameter, is about a statue of a proud king called Ozymandias. It seemed like the statue was once a massive structure looking over a great Egyptian city, but all that is left is a pedestal supporting "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone" (Shelley 121). Shelley likely intended the poem to be about how time and nature will always destroy what humanity has created regardless of how large our creations are, and that no matter how powerful someone is, there will eventually be no evidence of their existence. While the poem can be classified as iambic pentameter, is is not a perfect definition. Line twelve reads, "Nothing beside remains. Round the decay" (Shelley 122). "Nothing" is trochaic. The next two feet are iambic, and the last is trochaic. The trochaic feet are thrown around reflecting the statue with its damaged head sunken into the sand. The image of a scattered statue coupled with the scattered meter highlights the futility of chasing immortality. It effectively enhances the poem's meaning without using more