[etni] Re: Ozymandias
- From: LindaKM <lindakm09@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: vardamorell@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:04:03 +0200
I did a quick "search" and this is what I found. I haven't read through it
yet.. but sent it out anyway!
Linda Kuras Mizrahi
- *Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,*
*The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed*
- The poem now tells us more about the "passions" of the face depicted
on the statue.
- Weirdly, the "passions" still survive because they are "stamp'd on
these lifeless things." The "lifeless things" are the fragments of the
statue in the desert.
- "Stamp'd" doesn't refer to an ink-stamp, but rather to the artistic
process by which the sculptor inscribed the "frown" and "sneer" on his
statue's face. The word could also make you think of the ruler's power. Had
he wanted to, he could have stamped out any of his subjects who offended
him.
- "Mock'd" has two meanings in this passage. It means both "made fun of"
and "copied," or "imitated." "Hand" is a stand-in for the sculptor. So the
sculptor both belittled and copied this man's passions.
- "The heart that fed" is a tricky phrase; it refers to the heart that
"fed" or nourished the passions of the man that the statue represents. But
if you think these lines are unclear, you're right. Even scholars have
trouble figuring out what they mean.
- The passions not only "survive"; they have also outlived both the
sculptor ("the hand that mock'd") and the heart of the man depicted by the
statue.
- Note the contrast between life and death. The fragments of the statue
are called "lifeless things," the sculptor is dead, and so is the statue's
subject. The "passions" though, still "survive."
On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 6:58 PM, Varda Morell
<<http://www.shmoop.com/ozymandias/section-2-lines-9-14-summary.html>
vardamorell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Can someone explain to me the meaning of the line "The hand that mocked
> them and the heart that fed"?
> Thank you!
> Varda Morell
>
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