Question

Short note on ozymandias

Answer 1

A tomb of Ramses II is known as Ozymandias, which is situated in the middle of desert. The tomb was made to memorize the greatness of this king, but actually highlights the death and decay of him. Though he wanted all to remember his glory and mightiness but now the travelers just see how the death can end all the glory and equalize everything that once was so great. 

Answer 2

Ozymandias was the name by which Ramses II was known to the Greeks. He was a pharaoh famous for the number of architectural structures he erected. The speaker recalls that he had met a traveller “from an antique land,” who once came up with a story about the ruins of a statue from the desert of his native country. Then he elaborates the statue; two vast legs of stone stand without a body, and near them, a massive, crumbling stone head lies “half sunk” in the sand. The traveller elucidates the expression of the statue as well.  He says that the grimace and “sneer of cold command” on the statue’s face indicate the emotions (or “passions”) of the statue’s subject is well understood by the sculptor. The memory of those emotions survives “stamped” on the lifeless statue, even though both the sculptor and his subject are both now dead. The pedestal of the statue says, “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.