P 4: Ozymandias (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

-

Q. RTC

"I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said: two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown."

i) Who does 'I' stand for?

A.i) 'I' refers to the poet Percy B. Shelly.

 ii) What does 'antique land' refer to?

A.ii) 'Antique land' refers to the place from where the traveller has come and where he saw the dilapidated statue and Ozymandias. It is actually an allusion to Egypt.

iii) What does the speaker mean by 'trunkless legs'?

A.iii) The speaker, by this phrase, refers to the dilapidated statue of Ozymandias, which consists only of two legs standing on a pedestal devoid of the upper body.

iv) Apart from trunkless legs, what did the traveller see there?

A.iv) Apart from the legs, the traveller saw a frowning and cold face partially sunk in the sand. This face once belonged to the statue of Ozymandias, but with time got sunk in the sand.
Q. RTC 

"I met a.................lies".

i) Who does the word 'I' refers to?

A.i) The word 'I' refers to the narrator.

ii) Who does the narrator meet? Where had he come from?

A.ii) The narrator meets a traveller who had returned from the antique land.

iii) What did the traveller see there?

A.iii) The traveller saw two vast trunkless legs made up of stone on a pedestal in the desert. Its broken face was lying near the legs which were half sunken. 

 iv) What is 'shattered visage'?

A.iv) The word 'shattered visage' refers to the broken face of the statue which was lying on the ground.
Q. V.B.Q. (Value Based Question)- 
Time is a common theme invoked in 'Ozymandias' and 'Not Marble Nor Guilded Monuments'. Compare how time is treated in both the poems.

A. Both Percy Shelly and Shakespeare in their poems, agree on one thing that there is no power which mortals have, that can overpower the great leveller-time. Shakespeare feels that time is 'sluttish' disloyal and destructive. He says that the only thing that can survive time is literature. It is literature which immortalises people, not the fragile 'works of masonry'. Shelly, on the other hand, believes that it is art in general which passes the test of time. In his poem, he brings out the irony that Ozymandias who commissioned the sculptor to immortalize him but what in turn became immortal was the sculptor's art, not the powerful king nor the sculptor himself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Class 9 History Ch.1 The French Revolution Extra Questions

-
Q. Who were the active citizens? A. Active citizens were the men who were above 25 years of age and paid taxes equal to at 3 days of a labourer's wage. These citizens had the right to vote. Q. Who were the passive citizens? A.  Passive citizens were the men and all women who were not entitled to vote. Q.  What were the taxes paid by the 3rd estate members of French society. A.  The taxes paid by the 3rd estate members were- i) Tithes - It was a tax levied by the church comprising of one-tenth of the agricultural produce. ii) Taille - It was a tax to be paid directly to the state. iii) Gobelle - It was an indirect tax on essential commodities like salt and tobacco consumption. Q. What was the Estates General? A.  The Estates General was a political body to which the 3 estates sent their representatives. This was the body which had the power to pass or reject the proposals for new taxes made by the monarch. Q. What was the import...
Read more

P.6 Oh, I Wish I'd Looked After Me Teeth (Pam Ayres)

-
Q. RTC "I wish I'd been that much more willin' When I had more tooth there than fillin' To pass up gobstoppers. From respect to me choppers, And to buy something else with me shillin'." a) ' I wish I'd been that much more willin' ' What does this line tell us about the poetess. a)  This line tells that the poetess now regrets not taking appropriate care of her teeth. b) What the poetess should not have bought with the shillings to avoid cavities? b) The poetess should not have bought candies, gobstoppers and other sweet food which she relished but was harmful to her teeth. c) What is the tone of the poetess in the poem? c)  The tone of the poetess is that of regret and repentance. Q. Imagine you are the poet. The day you visit the dentist for the first time, you write a letter to your best friend. Express the dilemma of guilt that you experience. A. 21-B, Baker's Street London 23 July 1989 Dear Robert         ...
Read more

P 6: Snake (by D.H. Lawrence)

-
Q. The poet has a dual attitude towards the snake. Why does he experience conflicting emotions on seeing the snake? A. When the poet first sees the snake, he thinks of the snake as a magnificent, quasi-harmless creature. He gives it as much respect as he gives to any other human. But soon the 'voice of education', i.e. the man-centric education challenges the poet to kill the snake lest he lacks the courage to do so. Q. Why did the snake flicker its tongue? And what does the poet compare it to? A. The snake uses its tongue as a sense organ. It flickers its tongue to check whether its surroundings are safe or not. The poet compares this flickering to lightning. The lightning on a dark night is easily comparable to the snake's tongue and its realm of the underworld. Q. RTC "And immediately I regretted it  I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what mean act! I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education  And I thought of the albatross...
Read more