The traveler suggests that the statue's sculptor intended his work to express the cruelty of Ramses II. How has the sculptor defeated him.

Defeat can be seen in the fact that the sculptor himself gets the attention and praise that used to be deserved by the king, for all that Ozymandias achieved has now “decayed” into almost nothing, while the sculpture has lasted long enough to make it into poetry. In a way, the artist has become more powerful than the king. The only things that “survive” are the artist’s records of the king’s passion, carved into the stone.