can any1 explain line wise ozymandias??

1.  He meets a traveller from a distant land  2.  who tells him he saw two pillars of stone  3.  in the desert, and next to them

  • 3

Ozymandias, the most outstanding political sonnet written by P.B. Shelley throws light on the power of time. Nothing can beat time. It treats everyone equally whether rich or poor, king or pauper.

The poem begins with the traveler telling the poet that he had seen a vast but ruined statue, where stood two giant legs, isolated in the desert. The face was sunk in the sand, frowning and sneering. The sculptor interpreted his subject well. There also was a pedestal at the statue, where the traveler noticed that the statue read “Ozymandias, King of Kings.” Through the note written on pedestal, the traveler came to know that he was a powerful king named Ozymandias who could not face the power of time. His strength, works or ego - nothing had remained. He had been perished by the storm of time and was now standing trunk-less in the vast desert. The expressions noticed by the traveler were those of frown and ignorant pride. It could well be understood that the ruler was tyrannous.

The poem conveys the message that man is mortal. He might be proud of his powers but the reality is far crueler that everything comes to an end as the time keeps on moving and changing. Immortality is the fact concerned with views, time, poetry and goodness only. Thus, Shelley points out very well the power of time. He says that how much ever the emperor might be cruel and powerful in his own time, the race with time can never be won.

I Explained Pargraph wise but i did explain clearly...If u concentrate, for sure the concept will be like a child's play for you.... Hope it helped ... Don't forget to give me a thumbs up if found the answer useful...~!!!

  • 66

The poem begins with the traveler telling the poet that he had seen a vast but ruined statue, where stood two giant legs, isolated in the desert. The face was sunk in the sand, frowning and sneering. The sculptor interpreted his subject well. There also was a pedestal at the statue, where the traveler noticed that the statue read “Ozymandias, King of Kings.” Through the note written on pedestal, the traveler came to know that he was a powerful king named Ozymandias who could not face the power of time. His strength, works or ego - nothing had remained. He had been perished by the storm of time and was now standing trunk-less in the vast desert. The expressions noticed by the traveler were those of frown and ignorant pride. It could well be understood that the ruler was tyrannous.

The poem conveys the message that man is mortal. He might be proud of his powers but the reality is far crueler that everything comes to an end as the time keeps on moving and changing. Immortality is the fact concerned with views, time, poetry and goodness only. Thus, Shelley points out very well the power of time. He says that how much ever the emperor might be cruel and powerful in his own time, the race with time can never be won.

  • 0

AwWw hari hara sudhan, U just copied my 2nd and 4th paragraph...doesn't matter dear, I don't mind it....Keep answering...~!!!

  • -1

Lines 1-2

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said...

  • The poem begins immediately with an encounter between the speaker and a traveler that comes from an "antique land."
  • We're not sure about this traveler. He could be a native of this "antique" land, or just a tourist returning from his latest trip.
  • We don't know where this encounter is taking place; is it on the highway? On a road somewhere? In London? Maybe if we keep reading we'll find out.
  • "Antique" means something really old, like that couch at your grandmother's or the bunny ears on top of your television. The traveler could be coming from a place that is ancient, almost as if he were time-traveling. Or he could just be coming from a place that has an older history, like Greece, Rome, or ancient Egypt.

Lines 2-4

…Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies…

  • Here the traveler begins his speech. He tells the speaker about a pair of stone legs that are somehow still standing in the middle of the desert.
  • Those legs are huge ("vast") and "trunkless." "Trunkless" means "without a torso," so it's a pair of legs with no body.
  • "Visage" means face; a face implies a head, so we are being told that the head belonging to this sculpture is partially buried in the sand, near the legs. It is also, like the whole statue, "shatter'd."
  • The image described is very strange: a pair of legs, with a head nearby. What happened to the rest of the statue? War? Natural disaster? Napoleon?

Lines 4-6

…whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  • The traveler now gives a fuller description of the "shatter'd visage" lying in the sand.
  • As it turns out, the "visage" (or face) isn't completely "shatter'd" because one can still see a "frown," a "wrinkled lip," and a "sneer."
  • We still don't know whom this statue represents, but we do know that he was upset about something because he's frowning and sneering. Maybe he thinks that the sneering makes him look powerful. It conveys the "cold command" of an absolute ruler. He can do what he wants without thinking of other people. Heck, he probably commanded the sculptor to make the statue.
  • After briefly describing the "visage" (3), the lines shift our attention away from the statue to the guy who made the statue, the "sculptor."
  • "Read" here means "understood" or "copied" well. The sculptor was pretty good because he was able to understand and reproduce exactly – to "read" – the facial features and "passions" of our angry man. The sculptor might even grasp things about the ruler that the ruler himself doesn't understand.
  • The poem suggests that artists have the ability to perceive the true nature of other people in the present and not just in the past, with the benefit of hindsight.
  • "Tell" is a cool word. The statue doesn't literally speak, but the frown and sneer are so perfectly rendered that they give the impression that they are speaking, telling us how great the sculptor was.

Lines 7-8

Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed

  • The poem now tells us more about the "passions" of the face depicted on the statue.
  • Weirdly, the "passions" still survive because they are "stamp'd on these lifeless things." The "lifeless things" are the fragments of the statue in the desert.
  • "Stamp'd" doesn't refer to an ink-stamp, but rather to the artistic process by which the sculptor inscribed the "frown" and "sneer" on his statue's face. The word could also make you think of the ruler's power. Had he wanted to, he could have stamped out any of his subjects who offended him.
  • "Mock'd" has two meanings in this passage. It means both "made fun of" and "copied," or "imitated." "Hand" is a stand-in for the sculptor. So the sculptor both belittled and copied this man's passions.
  • "The heart that fed" is a tricky phrase; it refers to the heart that "fed" or nourished the passions of the man that the statue represents. But if you think these lines are unclear, you're right. Even scholars have trouble figuring out what they mean.
  • The passions not only "survive"; they have also outlived both the sculptor ("the hand that mock'd") and the heart of the man depicted by the statue.
  • Note the contrast between life and death. The fragments of the statue are called "lifeless things," the sculptor is dead, and so is the statue's subject. The "passions" though, still "survive."

Lines 9-11

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

  • The traveler tells us about an inscription at the foot of statue which finally reveals to us whom this statue represents.
  • It is "Ozymandias," the figure named in the title. "Ozymandias" was one of several Greek names for Ramses II of Egypt. For more, see "What's Up with the Title."
  • The inscription suggests that Ozymandias is arrogant, or at least that he has grand ideas about his own power: he calls himself the "king of kings."
  • Ozymandias also brags about his "works." Maybe he's referring to the famous temples he constructed at Abu Simbel or Thebes. He could also be calling attention to the numerous colossal statues of him, such as the one described in this poem.
  • Ozymandias's speech is ambiguous here. On the one hand he tells the "mighty" to "despair" because their achievements will never equal his "works." On the other hand, he might be telling the "mighty" to "despair" as a kind of warning, saying something like "Don't get your hopes up guys because your statues, works, political regimes, etc. will eventually be destroyed or fade away, with nothing to recall them but a dilapidated statue half-buried in the sand."

12-14

Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

  • After the traveler recites the inscription, he resumes his description of the statue and the surrounding area.
  • We are reminded again that "nothing" remains besides the head, legs, and pedestal; as if we didn't know the statue has been destroyed, the traveler tells us again that it is a "colossal wreck."
  • The very size of the statue – "colossal" – emphasizes the scope of Ozymandias's ambitions as well; it's almost as if because he thinks he's the "king of kings" (10), he also has to build a really big statue.
  • To complement the "decay" of the statue, the traveler describes a desolate and barren desert that seems to go on forever: the "sands stretch far away."
  • The statue is the only thing in this barren, flat desert. There was probably once a temple or something nearby, but it's long gone. The "sands" are "lone," which means whatever else used to be "beside" the statue has been destroyed or buried.
  • Several words in these lines start with the same letter; for example "besides," "boundless," and "bare"; "remains" and "round"; "lone" and "level"; "sands" and "stretch." Using multiple words with the same initial letter is called alliteration.
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Lines 1-2

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said...

  • The poem begins immediately with an encounter between the speaker and a traveler that comes from an "antique land."
  • We're not sure about this traveler. He could be a native of this "antique" land, or just a tourist returning from his latest trip.
  • We don't know where this encounter is taking place; is it on the highway? On a road somewhere? In London? Maybe if we keep reading we'll find out.
  • "Antique" means something really old, like that couch at your grandmother's or the bunny ears on top of your television. The traveler could be coming from a place that is ancient, almost as if he were time-traveling. Or he could just be coming from a place that has an older history, like Greece, Rome, or ancient Egypt.

Lines 2-4

…Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies…

  • Here the traveler begins his speech. He tells the speaker about a pair of stone legs that are somehow still standing in the middle of the desert.
  • Those legs are huge ("vast") and "trunkless." "Trunkless" means "without a torso," so it's a pair of legs with no body.
  • "Visage" means face; a face implies a head, so we are being told that the head belonging to this sculpture is partially buried in the sand, near the legs. It is also, like the whole statue, "shatter'd."
  • The image described is very strange: a pair of legs, with a head nearby. What happened to the rest of the statue? War? Natural disaster? Napoleon?

Lines 4-6

…whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  • The traveler now gives a fuller description of the "shatter'd visage" lying in the sand.
  • As it turns out, the "visage" (or face) isn't completely "shatter'd" because one can still see a "frown," a "wrinkled lip," and a "sneer."
  • We still don't know whom this statue represents, but we do know that he was upset about something because he's frowning and sneering. Maybe he thinks that the sneering makes him look powerful. It conveys the "cold command" of an absolute ruler. He can do what he wants without thinking of other people. Heck, he probably commanded the sculptor to make the statue.
  • After briefly describing the "visage" (3), the lines shift our attention away from the statue to the guy who made the statue, the "sculptor."
  • "Read" here means "understood" or "copied" well. The sculptor was pretty good because he was able to understand and reproduce exactly – to "read" – the facial features and "passions" of our angry man. The sculptor might even grasp things about the ruler that the ruler himself doesn't understand.
  • The poem suggests that artists have the ability to perceive the true nature of other people in the present and not just in the past, with the benefit of hindsight.
  • "Tell" is a cool word. The statue doesn't literally speak, but the frown and sneer are so perfectly rendered that they give the impression that they are speaking, telling us how great the sculptor was.

Lines 7-8

Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed

  • The poem now tells us more about the "passions" of the face depicted on the statue.
  • Weirdly, the "passions" still survive because they are "stamp'd on these lifeless things." The "lifeless things" are the fragments of the statue in the desert.
  • "Stamp'd" doesn't refer to an ink-stamp, but rather to the artistic process by which the sculptor inscribed the "frown" and "sneer" on his statue's face. The word could also make you think of the ruler's power. Had he wanted to, he could have stamped out any of his subjects who offended him.
  • "Mock'd" has two meanings in this passage. It means both "made fun of" and "copied," or "imitated." "Hand" is a stand-in for the sculptor. So the sculptor both belittled and copied this man's passions.
  • "The heart that fed" is a tricky phrase; it refers to the heart that "fed" or nourished the passions of the man that the statue represents. But if you think these lines are unclear, you're right. Even scholars have trouble figuring out what they mean.
  • The passions not only "survive"; they have also outlived both the sculptor ("the hand that mock'd") and the heart of the man depicted by the statue.
  • Note the contrast between life and death. The fragments of the statue are called "lifeless things," the sculptor is dead, and so is the statue's subject. The "passions" though, still "survive."

Lines 9-11

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

  • The traveler tells us about an inscription at the foot of statue which finally reveals to us whom this statue represents.
  • It is "Ozymandias," the figure named in the title. "Ozymandias" was one of several Greek names for Ramses II of Egypt. For more, see "What's Up with the Title."
  • The inscription suggests that Ozymandias is arrogant, or at least that he has grand ideas about his own power: he calls himself the "king of kings."
  • Ozymandias also brags about his "works." Maybe he's referring to the famous temples he constructed at Abu Simbel or Thebes. He could also be calling attention to the numerous colossal statues of him, such as the one described in this poem.
  • Ozymandias's speech is ambiguous here. On the one hand he tells the "mighty" to "despair" because their achievements will never equal his "works." On the other hand, he might be telling the "mighty" to "despair" as a kind of warning, saying something like "Don't get your hopes up guys because your statues, works, political regimes, etc. will eventually be destroyed or fade away, with nothing to recall them but a dilapidated statue half-buried in the sand."

12-14

Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

  • After the traveler recites the inscription, he resumes his description of the statue and the surrounding area.
  • We are reminded again that "nothing" remains besides the head, legs, and pedestal; as if we didn't know the statue has been destroyed, the traveler tells us again that it is a "colossal wreck."
  • The very size of the statue – "colossal" – emphasizes the scope of Ozymandias's ambitions as well; it's almost as if because he thinks he's the "king of kings" (10), he also has to build a really big statue.
  • To complement the "decay" of the statue, the traveler describes a desolate and barren desert that seems to go on forever: the "sands stretch far away."
  • The statue is the only thing in this barren, flat desert. There was probably once a temple or something nearby, but it's long gone. The "sands" are "lone," which means whatever else used to be "beside" the statue has been destroyed or buried.
  • Several words in these lines start with the same letter; for example "besides," "boundless," and "bare"; "remains" and "round"; "lone" and "level"; "sands" and "stretch." Using multiple words with the same initial letter is called alliteration.

 

  • 18

 Children do not learn this poem.Ye tum logon k level ki nahi hai idio ts.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

This conversation is already closed by Expert

  • -15

546

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IT IS ACTUALLY ABOUT A KING OZYMANDIAS A KING WHO BUILDS IS STATUE SO THAT HE BECOMES IMMORTAL BUT THEN DUE TO A DISASTER IT IS COMPLETELY RUINED.
  • -11
this poem is one of the beautiful poem written in English. Before learning it for exams, we should understand it's real meaning by heart. It says the real fact of this world.
the power of time. Nothing remains in this world against time. In this poem, we could easily understand that Ozymandias was the most powerful king of the world. But after the passage of time, nothing remains. everything of the creations that the Ozymandias created, turned into dunes of sand. this is the soul of the poem. the explanation of this poem is as given above.
Hope it helped, and again, if found useful, a thumbs up
  • 4

Here we have a speaker learning from a traveller about a giant, ruined statue that lay broken and eroded in the desert. The title of the poem informs the reader that the subject is the 13th-century B.C. Egyptian King Ramses II, whom the Greeks called ―Ozymandias. The traveller describes the great work of the sculptor, who was able to capture the king‘s ―passions and give meaningful expression to the stone, an otherwise ―lifeless thing. The―mocking hand in line 8 is that of the sculptor, who had the artistic ability to ―mock (that is, both imitate and deride) the passions of the king. The ―heart is first of all the king‘s, which ―fed the sculptor‘s passions, and in turn the sculptor‘s, sympathetically recapturing the king‘s passions in the stone.

The final five lines mock the inscription hammered into the pedestal of the statue. The original inscription read ―I am Ozymandias, King of Kings; if anyone wishes to know what I am and where I lie, let him surpass me in some of my exploits. The idea was that he was too powerful for even the common king to relate to him; even a mighty king should despair 

at matching his power. That principle may well remain valid, but it is undercut by the plain fact that even an empire is a human creation that will one day pass away. The statue and surrounding desert constitute a metaphor for invented power in the face of natural power. By Shelley‘s time, nothing remains but a shattered bust, eroded ―visage, and ―trunkless legs surrounded with ―nothing but ―level sands that ―stretch far away. Shelley thus points out human mortality and the fate of artificial things.

The lesson is important in Europe: France‘s hegemony has ended, and England‘s will end sooner or later. Everything about the king‘s ―exploits is now gone, and all that remains of the dominating civilization are shattered ―stones alone in the desert. Note the use of alliteration to emphasize the point: ―boundless and bare ; ―lone and level.

It is important to keep in mind the point of view of ―Ozymandias. The perspective on the statue is coming from an unknown traveller who is telling the speaker about the scene. This helps to create a sense of mystery of history and legend: we are getting the story from a poet who heard it from a traveller who might or might not have actually seen the statue. The statue itself is an expression of the sculptor, who might or might not have truly captured the passions of the king. Our best access to the king himself is not the statue, not anything physical, but the king‘s own words.

Poetry might last forever unlike other human creations. Yet, communicating words present a different set of problems. Finally, we cannot miss the general comment on human vanity in the poem. It is not just the ―mighty who desire to withstand time; it is common for people to seek immortality and to resist death and decay.

Furthermore, the sculptor himself gets attention andpraise that used to be deserved by the king, for all that Ozymandias achieved has now ―decayed into almost nothing, while the sculpture has lasted long enough to make it into poetry. In a way, the artist has become more powerful than the king. The only things that ―survive are the artist‘s records of the king‘s passion, carved into the stone.

Perhaps Shelley chose the medium of poetry in order to create something more powerful and lasting than what politics could achieve, all the while understanding that words too will eventually pass away. Unlike many of his poems, ―Ozymandias does not end on a note of hope. There is no extra stanza or concluding couplet to honor the fleeting joys of knowledge or to hope in human progress. Instead, the traveller has nothing more to say, and the persona draws no conclusions of his own.

of this era; it does not fit a conventional Petrarchan pattern, but instead interlinks the

Ozymandias” is a sonnet, a fourteen-line

poem metered in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is somewhat unusual for a sonnet

octave (a term for the first eight lines of a sonnet) with the sestet (a term for the last six

lines), by gradually replacing old rhymes with new ones in the form ABABACDCEDEFEF. 

  • 12
Lines 1-2

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said...

  • The poem begins immediately with an encounter between the speaker and a traveler that comes from an "antique land."
  • We're not sure about this traveler. He could be a native of this "antique" land, or just a tourist returning from his latest trip.
  • We don't know where this encounter is taking place; is it on the highway? On a road somewhere? In London? Maybe if we keep reading we'll find out.
  • "Antique" means something really old, like that couch at your grandmother's or the bunny ears on top of your television. The traveler could be coming from a place that is ancient, almost as if he were time-traveling. Or he could just be coming from a place that has an older history, like Greece, Rome, or ancient Egypt.

 

Lines 2-4

…Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies…

  • Here the traveler begins his speech. He tells the speaker about a pair of stone legs that are somehow still standing in the middle of the desert.
  • Those legs are huge ("vast") and "trunkless." "Trunkless" means "without a torso," so it's a pair of legs with no body.
  • "Visage" means face; a face implies a head, so we are being told that the head belonging to this sculpture is partially buried in the sand, near the legs. It is also, like the whole statue, "shatter'd."
  • The image described is very strange: a pair of legs, with a head nearby. What happened to the rest of the statue? War? Natural disaster? Napoleon?

 

Lines 4-6

…whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  • The traveler now gives a fuller description of the "shatter'd visage" lying in the sand.
  • As it turns out, the "visage" (or face) isn't completely "shatter'd" because one can still see a "frown," a "wrinkled lip," and a "sneer."
  • We still don't know whom this statue represents, but we do know that he was upset about something because he's frowning and sneering. Maybe he thinks that the sneering makes him look powerful. It conveys the "cold command" of an absolute ruler. He can do what he wants without thinking of other people. Heck, he probably commanded the sculptor to make the statue.
  • After briefly describing the "visage" (3), the lines shift our attention away from the statue to the guy who made the statue, the "sculptor."
  • "Read" here means "understood" or "copied" well. The sculptor was pretty good because he was able to understand and reproduce exactly – to "read" – the facial features and "passions" of our angry man. The sculptor might even grasp things about the ruler that the ruler himself doesn't understand.
  • The poem suggests that artists have the ability to perceive the true nature of other people in the present and not just in the past, with the benefit of hindsight.
  • "Tell" is a cool word. The statue doesn't literally speak, but the frown and sneer are so perfectly rendered that they give the impression that they are speaking, telling us how great the sculptor was.

 

  • 2
 

 

Lines 7-8

Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed

  • The poem now tells us more about the "passions" of the face depicted on the statue.
  • Weirdly, the "passions" still survive because they are "stamp'd on these lifeless things." The "lifeless things" are the fragments of the statue in the desert.
  • "Stamp'd" doesn't refer to an ink-stamp, but rather to the artistic process by which the sculptor inscribed the "frown" and "sneer" on his statue's face. The word could also make you think of the ruler's power. Had he wanted to, he could have stamped out any of his subjects who offended him.
  • "Mock'd" has two meanings in this passage. It means both "made fun of" and "copied," or "imitated." "Hand" is a stand-in for the sculptor. So the sculptor both belittled and copied this man's passions.
  • "The heart that fed" is a tricky phrase; it refers to the heart that "fed" or nourished the passions of the man that the statue represents. But if you think these lines are unclear, you're right. Even scholars have trouble figuring out what they mean.
  • The passions not only "survive"; they have also outlived both the sculptor ("the hand that mock'd") and the heart of the man depicted by the statue.
  • Note the contrast between life and death. The fragments of the statue are called "lifeless things," the sculptor is dead, and so is the statue's subject. The "passions" though, still "survive."
Lines 9-11

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

  • The traveler tells us about an inscription at the foot of statue which finally reveals to us whom this statue represents.
  • It is "Ozymandias," the figure named in the title. "Ozymandias" was one of several Greek names for Ramses II of Egypt. For more, see "What's Up with the Title."
  • The inscription suggests that Ozymandias is arrogant, or at least that he has grand ideas about his own power: he calls himself the "king of kings."
  • Ozymandias also brags about his "works." Maybe he's referring to the famous temples he constructed at Abu Simbel or Thebes. He could also be calling attention to the numerous colossal statues of him, such as the one described in this poem.
  • Ozymandias's speech is ambiguous here. On the one hand he tells the "mighty" to "despair" because their achievements will never equal his "works." On the other hand, he might be telling the "mighty" to "despair" as a kind of warning, saying something like "Don't get your hopes up guys because your statues, works, political regimes, etc. will eventually be destroyed or fade away, with nothing to recall them but a dilapidated statue half-buried in the sand."

 

12-14

Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

  • After the traveler recites the inscription, he resumes his description of the statue and the surrounding area.
  • We are reminded again that "nothing" remains besides the head, legs, and pedestal; as if we didn't know the statue has been destroyed, the traveler tells us again that it is a "colossal wreck."
  • The very size of the statue – "colossal" – emphasizes the scope of Ozymandias's ambitions as well; it's almost as if because he thinks he's the "king of kings" (10), he also has to build a really big statue.
  • To complement the "decay" of the statue, the traveler describes a desolate and barren desert that seems to go on forever: the "sands stretch far away."
  • The statue is the only thing in this barren, flat desert. There was probably once a temple or something nearby, but it's long gone. The "sands" are "lone," which means whatever else used to be "beside" the statue has been destroyed or buried.
  • Several words in these lines start with the same letter; for example "besides," "boundless," and "bare"; "remains" and "round"; "lone" and "level"; "sands" and "stretch." Using multiple words with the same initial letter is called alliteration. For more, see "Sound Check."

 

   
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HI

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Lines 1-2 I met a traveller from an antique land Who said... The poem begins immediately with an encounter between the speaker and a traveler that comes from an "antique land." We're not sure about this traveler. He could be a native of this "antique" land, or just a tourist returning from his latest trip. We don't know where this encounter is taking place; is it on the highway? On a road somewhere? In London? Maybe if we keep reading we'll find out. "Antique" means something really old, like that couch at your grandmother's or the bunny ears on top of your television. The traveler could be coming from a place that is ancient, almost as if he were time-traveling. Or he could just be coming from a place that has an older history, like Greece, Rome, or ancient Egypt. Lines 2-4 …Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies… Here the traveler begins his speech. He tells the speaker about a pair of stone legs that are somehow still standing in the middle of the desert. Those legs are huge ("vast") and "trunkless." "Trunkless" means "without a torso," so it's a pair of legs with no body. "Visage" means face; a face implies a head, so we are being told that the head belonging to this sculpture is partially buried in the sand, near the legs. It is also, like the whole statue, "shatter'd." The image described is very strange: a pair of legs, with a head nearby. What happened to the rest of the statue? War? Natural disaster? Napoleon? Lines 4-6 …whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read The traveler now gives a fuller description of the "shatter'd visage" lying in the sand. As it turns out, the "visage" (or face) isn't completely "shatter'd" because one can still see a "frown," a "wrinkled lip," and a "sneer." We still don't know whom this statue represents, but we do know that he was upset about something because he's frowning and sneering. Maybe he thinks that the sneering makes him look powerful. It conveys the "cold command" of an absolute ruler. He can do what he wants without thinking of other people. Heck, he probably commanded the sculptor to make the statue. After briefly describing the "visage" (3), the lines shift our attention away from the statue to the guy who made the statue, the "sculptor." "Read" here means "understood" or "copied" well. The sculptor was pretty good because he was able to understand and reproduce exactly – to "read" – the facial features and "passions" of our angry man. The sculptor might even grasp things about the ruler that the ruler himself doesn't understand. The poem suggests that artists have the ability to perceive the true nature of other people in the present and not just in the past, with the benefit of hindsight. "Tell" is a cool word. The statue doesn't literally speak, but the frown and sneer are so perfectly rendered that they give the impression that they are speaking, telling us how great the sculptor was. Lines 7-8 Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed The poem now tells us more about the "passions" of the face depicted on the statue. Weirdly, the "passions" still survive because they are "stamp'd on these lifeless things." The "lifeless things" are the fragments of the statue in the desert. "Stamp'd" doesn't refer to an ink-stamp, but rather to the artistic process by which the sculptor inscribed the "frown" and "sneer" on his statue's face. The word could also make you think of the ruler's power. Had he wanted to, he could have stamped out any of his subjects who offended him. "Mock'd" has two meanings in this passage. It means both "made fun of" and "copied," or "imitated." "Hand" is a stand-in for the sculptor. So the sculptor both belittled and copied this man's passions. "The heart that fed" is a tricky phrase; it refers to the heart that "fed" or nourished the passions of the man that the statue represents. But if you think these lines are unclear, you're right. Even scholars have trouble figuring out what they mean The passions not only "survive"; they have also outlived both the sculptor ("the hand that mock'd") and the heart of the man depicted by the statue. Note the contrast between life and death. The fragments of the statue are called "lifeless things," the sculptor is dead, and so is the statue's subject. The "passions" though, still "survive."
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