Question

Describe the theme of the poem ozymandias in about 100-150words

Answer 1

Ozymandias” is at first glance a sonnet about the transitory nature of life and its pretensions of fame and fortune. The decaying, ancient statue bears witness to the fact that the pursuit of power and glory for their own sakes are not only fleeting, but they are also illusory, unworthy ambitions even within the lifetime of their seekers. The speaker recalls having met a traveler “from an antique land,” who told him a story about the ruins of a statue in the desert of his native country. Two vast legs of stone stand without a body, and near them a massive, crumbling stone head lies “half sunk” in the sand. The traveler told the speaker that the frown and “sneer of cold command” on the statue’s face indicate that the sculptor understood well the emotions of the statue’s subject. The memory of those emotions survives "stamped" on the lifeless statue, even though both the sculptor and his subject are both now dead. On the pedestal of the statue appear the words, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings",Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” But around the decaying ruin of the statue, nothing remains, only the “lone and level sands,” which stretch out around it.This story tells us that time is a great destroyer.It levels everything,even the great kings are destroyed by the rages of time.The future generation ultimatly fogets everything.Thus the peom brings out the futility of human endover to gain exerlating glory to huge statue elected to convey the kings mind,fame and glory outlived him.Time is a great conqueror amd equilison.It humbles the mightys.The flourishing kingdom of ozymandis has been wipped out and turned into a desert.The central theme of this poem is the evitable decline of the high and mightu and time being the ultimate leveler.