Hi Everyone!! This article will share Ozymandias Questions & Answers.
Ozymandias is a sonnet written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of On a Bicycle, Where The Mind is Without Fear, The Luncheon and Village Blacksmith so, you can check these posts as well. I have also shared Ozymandias Stanza Wise Summary so, make sure to check that post.
Ozymandias Questions & Answers
Word Galaxy
- Antique land – land of ancient civilization
- Boundless – limitless
- Pedestal – base of the statue
- Colossal – great in size or force to bring out a feeling of admiration and respect
- Visage – face
- Sneer – an unfriendly self-important expression
- Stamped – sculpted
Question 1: Whom does the poet meet?
Answer: The poet meets a traveller from an antique land.
Question 2: What kind of a place is the land visited by the traveller?
Answer: It is a desert.
Question 3: The poem has two settings. Identify them.
Answer: The first is the place where narrator meets the traveller and the second setting is the place where ancient civilization once existed.
Question 4: What else did the traveller find in the sand?
Answer: The traveller found a visage half sunk.
Question 5: What is the only thing remaining in the vast desert?
Answer: The trunkless legs, the visage and the words on the pedestal.
Question 6: What does the poet mean by ‘Two vast and trunk less legs of stone’?
Answer: The poet means just two huge legs of stone without a body.
Question 7: How was the visage?
Answer: It had a frown and a wrinkle on the lip. There was a sneer of cold command.
Question 8: Explain….that its sculptor well those passions read.
Answer: The sculptor read those passions well and sculpted it on the visage or the face of the statue.
Question 9: What do the words tell us about the King?
Answer: The words tell us that he was a proud person.
Question 10: What lesson did you learn from the poetry?
Answer: The lesson learnt from the poem is that nothing lasts forever.
Question 11: What features on the King’s face tell that he was proud?
Answer: The king had a frown and a wrinkled lip on his face. His face also had a sneer of cold command.
Ozymandias Questions & Answers
Question 12: What else tells that he was proud?
Answer: The inscription on the pedestal: ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” tells us that he was proud.
Question 13: What happens to people who are proud?
Answer: Nothing remains of them except evidences that they were proud.
Question 14: What should be the qualities that achievers should imbibe?
Answer: They should be humble about their achievements and not boastful.
Question 15: What will happen then?
Answer: Achievements and our name will not be forgotten by the sands of time. It will always be remembered.
Question 16: “Look on my works, ye mighty and despair!” Who is Ozymandias referring to when he speaks of “ye mighty”? Why should they despair?
Answer: Ozymandias is referring to his own prowess. The brags that the other kings should be awestruck for his phenomenal and incomparable works. They should despair because he is impossible to be defeated. According to him he is unparallel, for he thinks nobody can overpass his greatness and strength.
Question 17: “The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed”. Whose hand and heart has poet referred to in this line?
Answer: Through the quoted lines, the poet is referring to the sculptor who gave us the distinct expression of the tyrannous king Ozymandias, who with his proud characteristics is ruined in the desert.
Question 18: What did the inscription on the pedestal below the statue indicate?
Answer: The inscription on the pedestal below the statue indicated the arrogance, conceit and arrogance of king Ozymandias. The king appeared to sneer at people who were weak and helpless.
Question 19: How did the poet come to know about the broken statue of Ozymandias?
Answer: The poet came to know about the broken statue of Ozymandias by a speaker who had met a traveller from an ancient land. The story and the condition of Ozymandias’ statue was conveyed by word of mouth.
Question 20: What does the narrator mean when he says “Nothing beside remains.”?
Answer: The narrator, through the sentence “Nothing beside remains” means that Ozymandias, the king of kings, the mightiest ruler of his times had led the life of a man perpetually in pursuit of power, might and worldly pleasures. He had fought many battles and expanded his kingdom to an unthinkable vastness. After his death, nothing remained, time had wiped every trace of his kingdom, and there was a vast sandy desert that remained. The piece of art survived the ravages of time, because even in the broken pieces of the statue one could read the face lying on the ground and get to know what sort of man he actually was.
Ozymandias Questions & Answers
Question 21: What is the main theme of the poem ‘Ozymandias’?
Answer: The main theme of the poem is nothing lasts forever. No king or his power can defeat time. All the achievement, in the end, leads to grave. So, the pride and the showcase of power are useless.
Question 22: In what condition was the statue found?
Answer: The statue of Ozymandias was found in a distant desert. Two vast legs of stone stood on a pedestal. The head of the statue was broken and lay half sunk in the sand.
Question 23: How does the poet describe the expression on Ozymandias’ face?
Answer: The shattered face of Ozymandias’ statue lay half-buried in the sand. It had a frown on its brow. It had wrinkled lips. It had a sneering look showing cold command in his eyes.
Question 24: In the poem ‘Ozymandias’, how does the poet show that art and language outlive the other symbols of power?
Answer: In the poem ‘Ozymandias’ the words ‘which yet survive’ imply the immortality of a work of art that the artist had created. The sculptor’s hands copied and portrayed his subject’s passions and his heart felt those passions and the hand inspired to make it possible. Even though the sculptor’s subject is now dead and his glories, kingdom and statues have crumbled to dust and have not lasted, his creation is still alive (stamped) on the otherwise lifeless stones. Through this the poet has shown that art and language outlive the other symbols of power.
Question 25: Read and answer the questions:
(a) Which land is the poet referring to when the poet speaks of an antique land?
Answer: The poet is referring to Egypt as an antique land.
(b) How many speakers are there in the poem?
Answer: There are three speakers in the poem- the poet, the traveller, Ozymandias.
(c) What does poet mean when he says ‘trunkless legs’?
Answer: The poet means the statue was broken. Only its legs remained and the face which lay half buried in sand.
(d) Who was Ozymandias?
Answer: Ozymandias was an Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses II who vainly believed that he was powerful and his empire would last forever.
Question 26: Read and answer the questions:
(a) Who is referred to as ‘them’?
Answer: The two legs of the statue are referred to as ‘them’.
(b) What lies near ‘them’?
Answer: The half-shattered face of the statue lies near them.
(c) What expression did the face have?
Answer: The face had a stern expression like that of a powerful commander, who must have been very cruel and quite arrogant.
(d) Whose expression did the sculptor read well?
Answer: The sculptor read the expression on the face of Ozymandias and created the same expression on his statue.
Question 27: Identify the figures of speech in the poem.
Answer: The entire poem is metaphorical where there is implied comparisons between the King and human attitude.
King of Kings is a Hyperbole. An exaggerated statement meant for emphasis.
‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Here it is an irony, where the King is boastful of his achievements but what remains is stretches of sand.
So, these were Ozymandias Questions & Answers.