Answer:
The situational irony lies in the fact that the statue is supposed to express Ozy’s great importance, but all it reveals is his wretched and pitiful state and his inability to retain the empire he sought to rule. He meant for the statue to show his power which he thought to be everlasting, but all it did was show that he was as temporary as a fly.
The poem comprises the emotions of a traveler, who imagines the story of the ruins of a statue in a desert. The traveler expresses that the statue was broken; two legs were standing without a body and the head was half sunk in the sand. He also explains the expressions of the statue such as the “frown” and “sneer of cold command,” which indicates that the sculptor has made the statue speak for itself. The lifeless statue has the name, Ozymandias, the king of kings, on its pedestal. The name indicates the readers to look at the massive statue of the mighty king, but the ruined state means that nothing remains after one’s death, even if he is a king. It shows the keen observation of the traveler on the one hand and the artistic skills of a sculptor on the other.
Explanation:
Resources Used:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-examples-of-irony-in-Ozymandias-by-Percy-Bysshe-Shelley
https://literarydevices.net/ozymandias/
https://blog.prepscholar.com/ozymandias
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