English Literature

Ozymandias Summary Class 10 English

Summary of Ozymandias

In this article, you will be reading Ozymandias summary. It was one of the best-known works of Percy Bysshe Shelly. The sonnet of P.B.Shelly followed the traditional structure of the Italian sonnet. It consists of fourteen lines. In this poem, the poet met a traveller who came from an old land.  The traveller told the poet about the remains of the statue as seen by him in the desert. The trunkless legs were of stone. It didn’t consist of head, neck or limbs. Furthermore, the face lied on the sand nearby. This face was half sunk in the sand. It was the statue of the Egyptian king Ramesses.

He wanted to show his might. He wanted others to feel less powerful than himself. Thus, he erected a statue of himself with a foolish desire to immortalize himself. The poem teaches that no-one or nothing is immortal. Everyone and everything in this world destroys with time. Thus, we should never crave for worldly desires.

Ozymandias Summary

Ozymandias Summary in English

In this poem, the poet met a traveller. The traveller tells the poet about the broken statue in the desert. He says that the statue is made up of stone in an old land. Moreover, it stands on legs only. The upper body was destroyed. Thus, it has no head, neck, and limbs. Furthermore, the face of the statue lay nearby on the sand. The same was damaged and destroyed by the passage of time. It was half sunk in the sand. Also, it showed a sign of anger or displeasure.  Moreover, his lips were wrinkled. There was an expression of hostility on his face. Also, his face depicted that he was a dominating king. He had no feelings for other people. Moreover, his statue depicted his passion to survive even after his death.

The artist has engraved these expressions in the statue very well. One could easily see the rough behaviour of the king in the statue’s expressions. The poet praises the sculptor. He had perfectly copied the minutest expressions and wrinkles on the king’s face.

The words “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” were engraved. The king announced himself as the mightiest. He wanted other kings to feel belittled in front of him. However, the poet says that everything got destroyed and damaged with the passage of time. The broken pieces of the statue were only lying around. Also, the dessert was very vast. The statue could be seen nowhere. The king was egoistic. Also, he was filled with pride. But, today, after a very long time, there is no trace of the king, Ramesses.

This tells us that we should never be boastful, egoistic or feel proud of ourselves. We all have limited time in this mortal world. We should not live our lives for earning name and fame. These are unattainable. The more we earn them, even more, we desire. On the contrary, we should live a generous and humble life. It is full of compassion and love.

Conclusion of Ozymandias

The passage of time destroys even the most powerful or mightiest person or thing in the world. Thus, we should not be boastful, egoistic or live with pride. Instead, we should live a life of simplicity.

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3 responses to “My Greatest Olympic Prize Summary”

  1. Tanjil says:

    The wonderful summary thank you for this.

  2. Niharika negi says:

    They did not belong to the family of gorden cook and you also didn’t write the spelling correct it’s James cook 😶😑

  3. hmMmm says:

    What’s funny is that Miss Fairchild said the line- “Money isn’t everything. But people always misunderstand things and remain stupid-” when she herself misunderstood the situation.

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