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Class 10 NCERT Solutions English Chapter 10 - Ozymandias

Ozymandias Exercise 106

Solution 1

You are recommended to attempt this question based on your imagination.

 

Ozymandias Exercise 107

Solution 2

Use the following points and your answer for the previous question to frame this answer.

 

A few guidelines:

 

  • Begin the letter with the date and salutation.
  • Where did you see this statue?
  • Describe what you saw by using appropriate adjectives.
  • Express your thoughts about the structure and its present condition.
  • How did you feel about the place around that structure?
  • Tell your friend the reason why the statue is in ruins.

 

Solution 4a

(iv) a desert

Ozymandias Exercise 108

Solution 4b

iv) contempt

Solution 4c

(iii) arrogant

Solution 4d

(iii) feelings

Solution 4e

(i) mocking

Solution 5a

The hand refers to the sculptors hand and the heart refers to the ruler, Ozymandias' heart.

Solution 5b

Ozymandias may have considered himself to be one of the most powerful and tyrannical rulers of his time. In order to emphasize how powerful he was as compared to the other kings, he referred to himself as 'King of kings'.

Through this statement we learn that he was a very proud, arrogant, conceited, powerful, aggressive and boastful ruler.

Solution 5c

Ozymandias could be referring to his contemporaries and his successors. He is confident that they will have to despair as they will never be as powerful and glorious as he was.

Solution 5d

The irony in the poem lies in the fact that the mighty ruler had the following words engraved on his statue "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look upon my works ye Mighty and despair!" These words conveyed he was so powerful that no other king could surpass him.

Yet, the arrogant king did not realize that after his death, the very same statue would lie shattered, and all that would be left of it would be the inscription. The arrogant words and the sneer on its visage are in direct contrast with the statue's present fate.

The king may have been powerful during his reign, but after his death, his legacy is at the mercy of the ravaging forces of nature. His past glory is now reduced to two standing legs and a shattered visage. This brings out the irony of the poem.

 

 

Ozymandias Exercise 109

Solution 5e

Nothing, but the legs of the stone statue and the shattered face remained. Through the lines "Nothing beside remains" the narrator is trying to imply that besides the few parts of the destroyed and eroded statue, there are no other traces of the civilization or the culture that existed at the time of Ozymandias. With time, the king, his power, his popularity and his great empire had all perished.

Solution 5f

This answer depends on each student's views and opinion.

 

A few guidelines:

 

  • The frown and wrinkled lip suggest that Ozymandias may have been a cruel and an angry king.
  • The sneer on his face indicates scorn and hostility.
  • The phrase 'cold command' suggests that he was a tyrant who ruled with an iron fist.
  • The inscription on his statue suggests that he had a very high opinion of himself- He suffered from superiority complex and was boastful.
  • He looked down on all the other kings.
  • He considered himself the king of kings, and commanded even the mighty to despair at his works.

 

Solution 5g

This answer depends on each student's views and opinion.

A few guidelines:

  • Death spares nobody, not even the greatest King. No one is immortal.
  • The once great and arrogant King Ozymandias considered himself the most powerful king. He even asked the other kings to despair, as none of them would be as glorious as he was, and would never surpass him.
  • Yet eventually, his statue along with his pride was shattered and all that was left was the broken face and the legs of his statue in the sand.
  • All his attempts at perpetuating his memory through his statue were a failure, and both his power and glory met with a tragic end.
  • Both, the king and the sculptor were now long dead, but only the statue survived. .
  • Time is powerful- worldly fame, authority and self righteousness meet their end at the hands of time.
  • Human beings are insignificant to time.
  • No matter how great or powerful one is in one's lifetime, one meets the same fate as other human beings.
  • Death makes no differences between the rich and the poor; the powerful and the powerless. Death comes to all and over time even power fades into oblivion.

Solution 6

The narrator: I met a traveller from an antique land…

 

The traveller: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

                   Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

                   Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

                   And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command,

                   Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

                   Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

                   The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

                   And on the pedestal these words appear.

 

                   Nothing besides remains. Round the decay

                   Of the colossal wreck, boundless and bare

                   The lone and level sands stretch far away.

 

Ozymandias: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

                     Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Solution 7

 

 

Rhyme scheme

Theme

Octave

AB AC AD ED

The description of the statue by the traveller.

All that survived were the passions of the king captured by the sculptor on the life less stone.

Sestet

 FE GH GH

The qualities of the King revealed through the inscription on the statue.

Time spares no one.

All that remained of the proud king and his statue was a shattered, colossal wreck.

Ozymandias Exercise 110

Solution 8

Poetic Device

Lines from the poem

Alliteration

... and sneer of cold command

Synecdoche (substitution of a part to stand for the whole, or the whole to stand for a part)

the hand that mock'd them

Synecdoche

..and the heart that fed;

Alliteration

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things

……boundless and bare

…. the lone and level sands stretch far away

 

Inversion (Unconventional sentence structure)

 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read.

Irony (When the outcome is  contrary to what is expected)

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Solution 9

This answer depends on each student's views and opinion.

A few guidelines:

 

Beginning:

Dear diary,

 I always thought that I was the mightiest of all, the King of kings, the all powerful, all knowing, the greatest achiever of all times- King Ozymandias. But today, when I returned to earth again, I had a rude awakening.

 

Next include the following points:

  • How you considered yourself to be the most powerful ruler of your time.
  • How you looked down on others-both kings and commoners.
  • How you thought your prestige and fame would last for generations after you passed away.
  • How you built the statue to perpetuate your memory.
  • The rude shock you received when you saw the statue
  • Describe the condition of the statue.
  • You realised time spares nobody, not even the greatest king. No one is immortal.
  • Looking at the shattered statue your pride/ego/arrogance was also shattered.
  • You realised that time is powerful, and all worldly fame, authority and self righteousness meet their end at the hands of time.
  • Now that you have been granted an opportunity to live your life again how you will mend your ways-be more humble and less arrogant and tyrannical -"live and let live".

Solution 10

The theme of the poems "Ozymandias" and "Not Marble, nor the Gilded Monuments" is Time.

In both the poems, the poets Shakespeare and Shelley explain, how powerful people build monuments, memorials and statues to showcase their power.

They want to be remembered by the future generations.

Unfortunately, man is mortal so are his worldly achievements. All manmade monuments are marred by time and other agents of destruction. However, Shakespeare explains in his poem that the only thing that is spared the ravages of time is the written memory which continues even after death. His poetic works will live on even after his death.

 

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