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Question

Answer the following questions briefly.

(a) "The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed." Whose hand and heart has the poet referred to in this line?

(b) "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:" Why does Ozymandias refer to himself as King of Kings? What quality of the king is revealed through this statement.

(c) "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Who is Ozymandias referring to when he speaks of ye Mighty? Why should they despair?

(d) Bring out the irony in the poem.

(e) 'Nothing beside remains.' What does the narrator mean when he says these words?

(f) What is your impression of Ozymandias as a king?

(g) What message is conveyed through this poem?

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Solution

(a) The hand and heart referred to, here, is that of the sculptor.

(b) In order to emphasise on him to be the most powerful of all kings, King Ozymandias calls himself ‘King of Kings’. The king supposedly was very powerful, aggressive, arrogant and boastful.

(c) Ozymandias refers to all the other rulers to come after his reign. They should despair, because according to him, they can’t surpass his glory and power.

(d) The irony of “Ozymandias” cuts much deeper as the reader realises that the forces of mortality and flexibility, described brilliantly in the concluding lines, will wear down and destroy all our lives. There is a special justice in the way tyrants are subject to time, but all humans face death and decay. The poem primarily depicts an ironic picture of Ozymandias and other rulers like him, but it is also a prominent thought on time-bound humanity: the traveler in the ancient land, the sculptor-artist who fashioned the tomb, and the reader of the poem, no less than Ozymandias, inhabit a world that is “boundless and bare.”

(e) When the narrator says these words, he emphasises on the fact that human life is time bound. The power and popularity of the ruler descended with the descent of the ruler. Nothing is immortal and immutable in this world.

(f) To me, Ozymandias seems to be a very powerful tyrannical ruler, who was extremely boastful of himself and his kingdom.

(g) Through this poem a very important message is conveyed which explains the ultimate truth of human lives that nothing is important. Everything in this world is time-bound and not immortal. The immutability of time has been explained through this poem.


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