The word hubris means arrogance and throughout the poem “ozymandias” shelley uses language effects to emphasis the king ozymandias hubris, but at the end of the poem we come to see that his arrogance is in vain for all that he has to be proud of is now in ruin. This conveys shelley’s intentions with the text which is to show the reader that nothing lasts forever.

When describing the once-great statue of ozymandias shelley uses the word shattered. The use of this particular word shows the reader the extent of the damage to the statue. It has been shattered inferring that it is unrepairable. This adjective makes the reader understand the compleat desolation of the pride of ozymandias. Shelley’s intention with this is to draw the reader’s attention to the way nothing lasts forever and how everything returns to dust in the end no matter how great we think it (or we) are. This relates to real life for we should relise that no matter how much power we have

One of the most powerful lines in the poem is ‘The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:’ this line does not make a hole lot of sense but is still emotive. I believe that in this line the hand that mocked is the sun and the heart that fed was water. The fact that there was once a great civilization were there is now only desert and ruin means that the land must have once been prosperous and lush. The sun is the source of all life but to much and everything dies, a river can be seen as a heart that pumps life into the land. It is ironic because the sun has now destroyed ozymandius’s creations and the water is now gone, turning the land to desert. Shelley’s intention with this is to make the reader understands how everything can change so fast no matter how eternal it may feel at the time, which is something that we often fail to accnolage in real life.