Page 120 - DENG102_COMMUNICATION_SKILLS_II

Unit 8: Aesthetic Appreciation of Texts: Poems

Once, the poet met a traveller who had come from the ancient land. The traveller told the poet notes
about the ruins of some statue lying there in the desert. He told him that he had seen the broken
statue of king Ozymandias. The statue was shattered and spread in pieces in the desert. The face
was half buried in the sand. There was an expression of pride and hatred on it. The expression
stamped on the face spoke of the ability of the sculptor to read the passions so well. Both the
sculptor who stamped the passions on stone so well and the king whose heart fed those cruel
passions had died. But the passions on the stone survived. The poet brings out the importance of
art here. Man is mortal but art is permanent. Man’s actions, similarly, outlive him.

Some words were written on the base of the statue. They could be read easily. The words written
declared Ozymandias a powerful king, in fact, king of kings. They further called upon all the
powerful kings of world to consider the achievements of Ozymandias and get disappointed at
their failure for not being equal to him. The traveller told the poet that nothing was left of him
(the proud king) now. There was sand everywhere. It stretched for miles. In the midst of sand
huge statue lay all in ruins and shattered. Nobody bothered about him. His vanity and pride all
had disappeared. Boasts of glories are vain. Time is all powerful. It destroys everything.

8.2.3 keywords

Antique: Belonging to the distant past

Atheism: Rejection of belief in the existence of deities
Colossal: Huge, immense
Pedestal: Base of a statue

8.2.4 review Questions

1. How does Shelley bring out the vanity of Ozymandias?
2. What is the poet’s attitude towards kingly tyranny?

3. What impression do you form of the sculptor’s characters?
4. Describe in your own words the theme of the poem.
5. Explain the these lines in your own words:
‘And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair!’

lovely Professional university 115