Practice Questions: Ozymandias | Practice Questions with Solutions for Class 10 PDF Download

Q1: What is ironic about the inscription on the pedestal of Ozymandias’ statue ?
Ans: The inscription on the pedestal of Ozymandias statue says I am Ozymandias, the king of kings, look on my works, ye mighty and despair. This suggests that the king was very boastful, vain and arrogant. He thought that his kingdom would remain forever. But his kingdom was no where to be seen and even his own statue was in a dilapidated state. He failed to realise that life is ephemeral.

Q2: Why does Ozymandias refer to himself as ‘king of kings’ ?
Ans: Ozymandias was a mighty king who had defeated many of the kings around his kingdom and had acquired those kingdoms. He was proud of his glory and power. He felt that he was the mightiest of all.

Q3: In the poem, ‘Ozymandias’, the poet says, ‘the hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed’. How does the hand ‘mock’ them?
Ans: The ‘hand’ here is the hand of the sculptor. The sculptor was really good at his job as he was able to read not only the face but also the heart of the king and portrayed the feelings of the king on the statue so clearly that even though the statue was destroyed, the feelings could be well-read.

Q4: What quality of King Ozymandias does the poem reflect?
Ans: The poem conveys that Ozymandias was a very powerful ruler. He had immense pride of his strength. Owing to his achievements he had become arrogant. He was indeed an authoritarian and a despot. His wishes were laws. He had desire of being remembered by the posterity as a very powerful ruler.

Q5: What did the traveller see in the desert?
Ans: The traveller intimated the narrator that he came across a queer scene in a desert while he was travelling to an ancient land. He beheld two vast and trunkless legs of stone standing in the desert. Near the trunkless legs a human face lay half buried in the sand. The sculptor of the statue very aptly carved the emotions of the despot whose statue it was.

Q6: What feelings does the partially destroyed statue of Ozymandias convey?
Ans: The partially destroyed statue of Ozymandias conveys the feelings that time is the most powerful thing in the world. It also expresses that the sculptor of the statue was a very skilled person. The ruler was full of scorn and hostility. He was drunk with power and authority. He threw a challenge to all the powerful persons of the contemporary world.

Q7: Describe how Shelley brings out the futility of power and riches in the poem, ‘Ozymandias’.
Ans: The icy hands of time leave none. Nothing is more powerful than time. Our glory, grandeur and power are only a nine days’ wonder. Ozymandias was ruthless and he had hatred and cold command. He demonstrated pride and sneer. The great sculptor of his time also carved out the emotions of Ozymandias on the face of his statue. ‘The wrinkled lip’ and ‘sneer of cold command’ say that he was drunk with pelf, power and authority. In the course of time all the pelf and power dwindled to nothingness. The statue of Ozymandias was spilled all around the desert in a very bad state. The sands symbolising death and extinction had engulfed it. All the power and riches had become futile. Time had swallowed them fully. Whatsoever he got carved on the pedestal of his statue could not stand against perpetually powerful swords of time. Ozymandias displays his lamentation and regret.

Q8: Describe the statue of Ozymandias in the desert.
Ans: The statue was in broken state. There were two vast and trunkless legs of stone. The head of the statue was lying on the ground, half buried in the sands of the solitary and vast desert. The broken parts of the statue were conveying that they were the parts of the statue of a very powerful but cruel and arrogant despot. The powerful strokes of time had dwindled the statue of stone to nothingness.

Q9: What words were written on the pedestal of the broken statue? What did they show?
Ans: The pedestal of the statue had a brief description of the ruler whose statue it was. The mighty and the most powerful ruler of his time claimed himself to be ‘the king of kings’. This despot was drunk with authority and power. He threw a challenge to all the contemporary rulers. His intention was to outshine them.

Q10: What message does the poem, ‘Ozymandias’ convey?
Ans: The icy hands of time leave nothing in this world. All human emotions like arrogance,frown, sneer, haughtiness, etc. vanish into thin air in the course of time. Time is so powerful that even the statue made of stone could not resist it. Ozymandias realised the futility of his vices. People must take a lesson from his life.

Q11: “The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.” Whose hand and heart are referred to in this line? Why?
Ans: In this line the hand of the sculptor and the heart of Ozymandias are referred to. The hands of the sculptor made the statue of Ozymandias. The sculptor was so skilled that he expressed all the feelings of the heart of Ozymandias on his statue. The face of the statue was telling that the man was so cruel and heartless.

Q12: What message does the poem, ‘Ozymandias’ convey?
Ans: The icy hands of time leave nothing in this world. All human emotions like arrogance,frown, sneer, haughtiness, etc. vanish into thin air in the course of time. Time is so powerful that even the statue made of stone could not resist it. Ozymandias realised the futility of his vices. People must take a lesson from his life.

Q13: What words were written on the pedestal of the broken statue? What did they show?
Ans: The pedestal of the statue had a brief description of the ruler whose statue it was. The mighty and the most powerful ruler of his time claimed himself to be ‘the king of kings’. This despot was drunk with authority and power. He threw a challenge to all the contemporary rulers. His intention was to outshine them.

Q14: Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
Whe hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.

• What do “lifeless things” refers to?
• How do we know that he was a good sculptor?
• How did the heart feed the passions?

Ans:

• The ‘lifeless things’ refers to the broken pieces of the statue of Ozymandias.
• The sculptor read the emotions on the face of Ozymandias and clearly transferred them into stone.
• Using his skill the sculptor expressed the emotions of the cruel heart of the ruler on the face of his statue.

Q15: Describe the statue of Ozymandias in the desert.
Ans: The statue was in broken state. There were two vast and trunkless legs of stone. The head of the statue was lying on the ground, half buried in the sands of the solitary and vast desert. The broken parts of the statue were conveying that they were the parts of the statue of a very powerful but cruel and arrogant despot. The powerful strokes of time had dwindled the statue of stone to nothingness.