The hand that mocked them, the heart that fed them... whose heart and hand has been referred to? the answer on this website is given to be that of the sculptor, but there is a heated discussion whether it is correct or not... most school teachers claim them to be that of the ozymandias himself... please explain your opinion
Answers
The poet is saying that the stone facial expression showing
the passions of Ozymandias has survived long after both the tyrant and
the sculptor are gone. The “hand that mocked them” (meaning the
passions depicted on the shattered visage) is the sculptor’s hand – the
sculptor was “mocking” the passions (with a play on the two meanings of
the word “mocked” – “copied” them and “ridiculed” them); the “heart that
fed them” is the heart of the ruthless tyrant himself, Ozymandias. The
sense of the poem is that the arrogance of the ruler, his belief that
his kingdom and his accomplishments would be unsurpassable and immortal,
are ironically mocked by the fact that his statue, the only remnant of
his reign, lies destroyed in “the lone and level sands,” and that human
life, whether cruelly destructive or constructively creative, is
temporal. The poem is also reflective of Shelley's own view of the
transitory nature of his own poetry.