Short Answer Questions (with Solutions) Chapter 10 - Ozymandias

                                      Short Answer Type Questions

1. What did the traveler tell the poet about?

Ans. The traveler told the poet that far in the desert he saw a huge statue lying in the dust. The statue was old and broken but the expressions on the face of the statue were intact. It seemed that it was the statue of a boastful ruler.

2. What was written on the pedestal of the statue and what does it signify?

Ans. It was written that the statue was of Ozymandias, the king of kings and the people should look at his vast empire and marvel at his achievements and then realize that their achievements were so little in front of his achievements.

3. What is the theme of the poem?

Ans. The theme of the poem is that time is all powerful and it can destroy even the mightiest. Time doesn't differentiate between the mighty and the poor. All the power, glory and might is reduced to nothing with time.

4. What do you get to know about the sculptor from the poem?

Ans. The sculpture was really skillful and he knew his job really well. He depicted the expressions of the king very clearly in his statue. He felt the emotions of the king from his heart and with his craftsmanship he created a wonderful statue. Though the statue was broken and dilapidated the expressions on it were still intact.

5. What is the tone of the poem?
Ans. The tone of the poem 'Ozymandias' suggests that pride comes before a fall. The tone of the poet involves an element of gloating over someone else's misfortunes. Nothing is permanent, everything is ephemeral. Everyone has to die one day. Nothing remains except good deeds and a great work of art.

6. Who are the three people who speak in the poem?
Ans. The speaker, the traveler and Ozymandias. The poet met a traveler who came from an ancient land and described the statue to him. Ozymandias speaks through the words inscribed on his statue.

7. What do you come to know about the sculptor from the poem?
Ans. He was a perfectionist. He was able to capture every expression of Ozymandias. The statue seems to speak. The wrinkled lip and sneer tell us about the proud and haughty attitude of Ozymandias. The emotions of the sculpture's heart and true magic of his hands are reflected in the sculpture.

                          Long Answer Type (Value-based) Questions

1. The poem highlights how vanity can lead to one's fall. Elaborate.

Ans. The poem highlights the fact that power and fame are short lived. They are ravaged by time. Time is a great leveler. It doesn't differentiate between a king and a beggar. Once a great king, Ozymandias, who had achieved so much in his life was lying buried in the sand. We should be honest in our deeds and dealing with the other people. We may erect monuments, buildings and palaces so that our coming generations may remember us but we fail to remember that time is all powerful and time can destroy anything.

2. What according to you made the poem 'Ozymandias' memorable?

Ans. Shelley's brilliant poetic rendering of the story and the subject of the poem, through merely a broken statue, makes the poem memorable. Framing the sonnet as a story told to the speaker by "a traveler from an antique land" enables Shelly to add another level of obscurity to Ozymandias' position with regard to the reader. Rather than seeing the statue with our own eyes, so to speak, we hear about it from someone who has heard about it from someone who saw it. Shelly's description of the statue works to reconstruct gradually, the figure of king of kings. First, we see merely the shattered visage, then the face itself, with its "frown and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command". Then, we are introduced to the figure of the sculptor and are able to imagine the living man sculpting the living king, whose face wore the expression of passions now inferable. The statue is now imaginatively complete, and we are then introduced to the extraordinary boast of the king, "Look upon my works, yet Mighty, and despair!" and with this line, the poet demolishes the imaginary picture of the king, and interposes centuries of ruin between it and us. Nothing beside remains. The poet has got a brilliant storytelling power and he truly takes us into that era of Ozymandias.