In “Ozymandias,” Percy Shelley uses alliteration, as noted
above. Like most poets, he also employs several other sound devices that are similar to
alliteration.
In line four Shelley is describing the ruins
of the statue of Ozymandias:
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Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose
frown,
The sound device here
is called “consonance.” Like alliteration, consonance uses
consonant repetition to achieve its effect. However, unlike alliteration, consonance is
not limited to using consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. In the line above, we
have the “s” sound five times, twice as the first letter of a word, twice in the middle,
and once at the end. Poets like to give the work an appealing sound, and this is one way
they do it.
Shelley also uses a couple of different types
of rhyme in his poem. Lines 1 and 3 end with the words “land” and “sand.” These words
are called exact rhymes, because their ending sounds are exactly the same. However,
lines 2 and 4 are a little different. They end with “stone” and “frown.” These words do
not rhyme exactly—they sound similar, but a little different from each other. Rhymes
like this are called by several names: slant, approximate, half-rhyme, and
inexact. Poets use them when the words they want to use do not have an
exact rhyme to pair with, or when they do not want their poem to sound too forced or
regimented. Some poets, like Emily Dickinson, use them almost
exclusively.
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