English: Ozymandias

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

Answer: The sculptor's hand and Ozymandias's 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?

Answer: Ozymandias refers to himself as the King of Kings because he considers himself the most superior among all other rulers of his time. This line reveals that Ozymandias is a boastful and arrogant person.

(c) “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 all other powerful kings of his time when he speaks of ye Mighty. They should despair because Ozymandias is superior to them and they stand nowhere when Ozymandias’s victories, achievements and works are compared with theirs.

(d) Bring out the irony in the poem.

Answer: The irony in poem is that Ozymandias erects his statue with an objective to become immortal for generation but after his death his statue breaks into pieces and there is no one to take care of the statue.

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

Answer: ‘Nothing beside remains.’ The narrator means to say that leaving the broken pieces of the statue everything else is missing. Ozymandias had died; his name and reputation had also died along with his death.

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

Answer: Ozymandias is a very arrogant king. He is very boastful and considers himself superior to any other ruler of his time. He erects his statue in a single hope that he would be remembered for generations after generations. He is aggressive and full of vanity.

(g) What message is conveyed through this poem?

Answer: The poem conveys the message that time is unfaithful and very powerful. With the passage of time everything or person meets its or his doom. Secondly the poet conveys the message that nothing is immortal in this world.