The Colossus Death Quotes

The speaker mockingly accuses the statue of thinking it's a high and mighty oracle. All the classical allusions in the poem make us think that she's specifically referencing the Oracle of Delphi. Of course, the priestesses of that oracle were said to get the scoop on the future from their god, Apollo, not the spirits of the dead.

The speaker could have chosen to talk about mending the statue's head, but instead chooses the word "skull-plates." This brings a deathly image to our minds and seems to hint at the idea that this fallen Colossus is meant to represent a human who's died.

The speaker slips in a slick reference to death by comparing the statue's eyes to "tumuli," which is a fancy-shmancy word for a burial mound. Here again, she seems to be subtly telling us that this statue represents a human being who's died.

Yay—more bones. The speaker takes the mention of "skull-plates" from line 14 even farther this time and gives us an image of a vast bone-yard that stretches as far as the eye can see. Is it just us, or has the speaker picked a really depressing place to hang out? If you want to get all metaphorical with your interpretation, you could say that this represents the way she feels completely surrounded by death.

Even though the sun is rising, the speaker is more concerned with the dark. You could totally interpret this line to mean that though life is going on around her she is stuck in mourning-mode.