Class 12 Alternative English Chapter 6 Ozymandius of Egypt

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Class 12 Alternative English Chapter 6 Ozymandius of Egypt

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Ozymandius of Egypt

POETRY

TEXTUAL QUESTIONS ANSWERS

A. Answer in one or two words.

1. Which king is referred to in the poem ‘Ozymandias Egypt’?

Ans. King Rameses II.

2. What type of poem is ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’?

Ans. A sonnet.

3. Who is the speaker in the poem?

Ans. The poem’s primary speaker is anonymous and genderless. 

4. Who tells the poet about the shattered statue?

Ans. A traveler from an antique land.

5. Name the collection of poetry in which ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’ got first published? 

Ans. Rosalind and Helen: A Modern Eclogue with Other Poems (1819).

B. Answer In A Few Words.

1. What is the rhyme scheme of ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’? 

Ans. “Ozymandias” takes the form of a sonnet in iambic pentameter. Shelley’s sonnet is a strange mixture of Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet. It is Petrarchan in that the poem is structured as a group of eight lines (octave) and a group of six lines (the sestet). The rhyme scheme is initially Shakespearean, as the first four lines rhyme ABAB. But then the poem gets strange: at lines 5-8 the rhyme scheme is ACDC, rather than the expected CDCD. For lines 9-12, the rhyme scheme is EDEF, rather than EFEF. Finally, instead of a concluding couplet we get another EF group. The entire rhyme scheme can be schematized as follows: ABABACDCEDEFEF.

2. What is ironic about the inscription on the pedestal of Ozymandias’s statue?

Ans. The irony about the inscription on the pedestal of Ozymandias statue was that the inscription gave impression that Ozymandias considered himself to be the king of kings. It showed Ozymandias pompous claim of being the mightiest of the mighty. The inscribed words showed the pride and haughtiness of the king.

3. What is the only thing remaining in the vast desert? 

Ans. The trunkless legs, the visage and the words on the pedestal. 

4. Who was Ozymandias?

Ans. Ozymandias was a Greek name for the pharaoh Ramesses II. The colossal monument to the apparently self-styled ‘King of Kings’ has shattered, illustrating the precarious, transitory nature of his power. In the poem Ozymandias has been presented as a powerful king of Egypt who was proud and arrogant. He claimed himself to be the king of kings. Ozymandias lived with the belief that other mighty rulers would not be able to attain his greatness.

S.L. No.CONTENTS
Chapter 1A Cup of Tea
Chapter 2The voyage
Chapter 3The Verger
Chapter 4The Martyr’s Corner
Chapter 5Bina Kutir
Chapter 6Ozymandius Of Egypt
Chapter 7Because I Could Not Stop For Death
Chapter 8Strange Meeting
Chapter 9The Solitude Of Alexander Selkirk
Chapter 10The Lake Isle Of Innisfree
Chapter 11Night Of The Scorpion

5. What quality of Ozymandias does the narrator represent? 

Ans. The narrator represented Ozymandias as a cold and harsh king whose face was imprinted with a frown, wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command. He is also shown as a proud and powerful king who like everyone else eventually shall fall and decay with time.

C. Answer briefly in your own words. 

1. Write a brief note on the theme of ‘transience of power’ as discussed in the poem.

Ans. The poem through the traveler of the antique land encountered by the speaker presented the theme of ‘transience of power’. This was made possible with the ‘colossal wreck’ that the traveler encountered of Ozymandias who in the poem is shown as the epitome of transience. The statue is a “colossal wreck” that like all other things doesn’t seem to last forever. It explores the fact that no matter how big the statues are, they will eventually succumb to the ravages of time. The statue also symbolizes ambition, pride, and absolute power of Ozymandias. Thus, it also implies that kingdoms and political regimes will eventually deteriorate, leaving no trace of their existence except, perhaps, pathetic statues that no longer even have torsos.

2. ‘The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed’. Whose hand and heart has the poet referred to in this line?

Ans. The ‘hand’ refers to the sculptor’s hand and the ‘heart’ refers to the King’s heart. 

3. How does the poet describe the expression on Ozymandias’s face? 

Ans. The face of ‘Ozymandias’ statue was shattered. The sculptor was such a skilful artist that the expressions on his face were still very clear. They showed frown and hostility on the face of the statue which revealed that he looked down upon others and was an arrogant and boastful king. All in all then, taken in isolation, the expression on the face of the sculpture suggests an arrogant, distant, and disdainful figure. He, like them, was guilty of too much pride, and he, like them, was drained of life (“these lifeless things”) and brought crashing back down to earth-in his case, literally. The statue’s facial expression-a frown and a wrinkled lip-form a commanding, haughty sneer. The expression shows that the sculptor understood the emotions of the person the statue is based on, and now those emotions live on, carved forever on inanimate stone.

D. Answer in details.

1. Bring out the central idea contained in the poem ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’ by P. B. Shelley?

Ans. The major theme behind “Ozymandias” is that all power is temporary, no matter how prideful or tyrannical a ruler is. Ramesses II was one of the ancient world’s most powerful rulers. He reigned as pharaoh for 66 years, led the Egyptians to numerous military victories, built massive monuments and temples, and accumulated huge stores of wealth. He eventually became known as Ramesses the Great and was revered for centuries after his death. Throughout the poem, Ramesses’ pride is evident, from the boastful inscription where he declares himself a “king of kings” to the “sneer of cold command” on his statue. However, “Ozymandias” makes it clear that every person, even the most powerful person in the land, will eventually be brought low, their name nearly forgotten and monuments to their power becoming buried in the sand. Although the poem only discusses Ozymandias, it implies that all rulers, dynasties, and political regimes will eventually crumble as well, as nothing can withstand time forever. At the time the poem was written, Napoleon had recently fallen from power and was living in exile, after years of ruling and invading much of Europe. His fate is not unlike Ozymandias’. When Ozymandias orders “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” he meant to cause his rivals despair over his incredible power, but he may have only caused them despair when they realized their ignominious end was as inevitable as his. The sonnet suggests Shelley’s dislike for monarchs. Though Shelley does not say here anything directly against the king, his disgust for power mongers has obviously been suggested in it. He presents Ozymandias as a symbol of the universal truth that human vanity for power is meaningless. It is a glaring irony that Ozymandias, the king of kings, is gone to oblivion.

2. Identify the figure of speech in the poem. 

Ans. The poem to bring out its themes aptly to the readers resorted to using several figure of speeches as a tool to enrich and clarify the poem. Shelley also reveals his artistic skill in this poem using various literary devices such as metaphors, personification, imagery, alliteration and irony. In the poem, there is the employment of one extended metaphor, i.e. the statue of Ozymandias which metaphorically represents power, legacy, and command. It clarifies the meanings of the object and makes it clear that once the king was mighty and all-powerful. It also shows that the sand has eroded the actual shape of the statue, representing the destructive power of time. In addition, Shelley also used personification, which means using human emotions for inanimate objects. He uses personification twice in the poem. 

The fifth line, “And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,” refers to the broken head of the statue. However, the lifeless statue of Ozymandias is referred to as a real person. The second example is in the sixth line of the poem where “Tell that its sculptor well those passions read” shows as if the statue is commanding the sculptor how to carve or express his emotions. Further, imagery was used to make the reader feel things through the five senses. The poet has used images involving a sense of sights, such as two vast and trunkless legs, a shattered face, wrinkled lip and desert. These images help readers visualize the status of the broken statue. Also, there have been instances of alliteration in the poem as there have been repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines of the poetry, such as the use of /c/ in “cold command”, the sound of /b/ in “boundless and bear” and the sound of /1/ in “lone and level.  Similarly, enjambment have been used. 

The term enjambment refers to lines that end without any punctuation marks. Shelley used enjambments in the second and sixth lines of the poem where it is stated, “Who said-“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone” and “Tell that its sculptor well those passions read”. The poem also mentions assonance- the repetition of the vowel sounds in the same line such as the sounds of /a/ in “stand and sand” and the sound of /e/ in “well and read.”; as well as consonance as there have been repetition of consonant sounds such as /s/ in “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies. Lastly to mention, the poem also used irony to present the opposite meanings of words. Ozymandias’s description presents him as a mighty, great, and fierce king, but in reality, there is nothing but a broken, lifeless statue. These literary devices have provided uniqueness to the text, and on the other, they have opened up new vistas for interpretations. Moreover, Shelley has explored many contemporary issues using these literary devices to bring out the various themes implied through the poem for its readers.

Additional Questions

1. What was inscribed on the pedestal of the statue?

Ans. It was inscribed on the pedestal that- “my name is Ozymandias, King of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” 

2. Whose greatness is actually glorified in the poem?

Ans. The greatness of the sculptor who had made the statue of Ozymandias is actually glorified in the poem. The art of the sculptor still remains, while the political power of king Ozymandias is already reduced to dust. Art is permanent.

3. What does “Wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command” signify?

Ans.In the fragmented statue of Ozymandias sculptor successfully imprinted ‘the wrinkled up and sneer of cold command. This expression on the face signifies the arrogance of the king and clearly shows how the king must have yielded a lot of power over his subjects. It also clearly exhibits how well the sculptor studied the passions and essence of the king’s personality. 

4. Describe the condition of the statue that the traveler comes across in the desert.

Ans. When the traveller saw the statue of Ozymandias, it was lying fragment in the sands of a vast desert. The two “trunkless legs” of the stone statue was standing in the desert and its shattered visage was partly buried in the sand. The face was imprinted with a frown and a mask of sneer which signifies the arrogance of the king and clearly shows how the king must have yielded a lot of power over his subjects. It also clearly exhibits how well the sculptor studied the passions and essence of the king’s personality.

On the pedestal of the statue are inscribed the words – “My name is Ozymandias, King of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.”

5. What is the message that the poet wants to convey in the poem?

Ans. In the poem, the poet wants to convey that the power and pride of a king is not permanent. The statue of once- powerful king Ozymandias is now lying fragmented in the sands of a vast desert. The might of the king is no longer evident. Neither the king nor his empire remains. All that remains are the ruins of the statue that speak of the artist’s greatness. Through this poem, the poet conveys to the reader the idea of human mortality and the permanence of art.

6. What else remained there besides the broken statue? What does it signify?

Ans. Nothing else remained besides the broken statue of Ozymandias. Only a ‘shattered visage’ and two ‘trunkless legs’ of stone lying amidst the bound and bare stretch of sand in the desert. It signifies the ideas of human mortality, the impermanence of political power, and the permanence of any form of art.

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