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Difficulty: MediumPoetic Diction and Syntax

Read the following poem, "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818):

1 I met a traveller from an antique land,
2 Who said—"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
3 Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
4 Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
5 And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
6 Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
7 Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
8 The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
9 And on the pedestal, these words appear:
10 "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
11 Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
12 Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
13 Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
14 The lone and level sands stretch far away.

In lines 6–8 ("Tell that . . . heart that fed"), which of the following best describes the grammatical relationship between "passions" (line 6) and "The hand . . . and the heart" (line 8)?

  1. The "passions" function as the subject of the verb "survive," which takes "The hand" and "the heart" as its direct objects.Answer
  2. B
    The "hand" and "heart" function as the compound subject of the verb "survive," meaning that the physical anatomy of the creator and ruler outlasted their emotions.
  3. C
    The "hand" and "heart" are in grammatical apposition to "passions," serving as figurative labels that identify the source of the passions without establishing a verb-object relationship.
  4. D
    The "hand" and "heart" refer to the author's own poetic efforts, conflating the historical poet's perspective with the character of the sculptor.
  5. E
    The "passions" are the direct object of "mocked" and "fed," which are performed by the speaker of the poem as the primary agent.

Answer

The 'passions' function as the subject of the verb 'survive,' which takes 'The hand' and 'the heart' as its direct objects.
The correct answer is correct because the relative pronoun 'Which' refers back to 'passions' in line 6, establishing 'passions' as the grammatical subject of the relative clause. The transitive verb 'survive' in line 7 takes 'The hand' and 'the heart' in line 8 as its direct objects, indicating that the ruler's passions have outlasted both the sculptor's hand that mocked (imitated) them and the ruler's heart that fed (nourished) them.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the relative clause beginning with 'Which' in line 7.
The relative pronoun 'Which' refers back to its antecedent, 'passions' (line 6). Therefore, 'passions' is the grammatical subject of the clause.
To identify what is performing or experiencing the action of the verb.
2
Identify the verb in the relative clause and determine if it is transitive or intransitive.
The verb is 'survive' (line 7), which functions transitively in this context, meaning it requires one or more direct objects to complete its meaning.
To understand how the action connects the subject to other noun phrases in the sentence.
3
Trace the direct objects of the verb 'survive' across the line break.
The verb 'survive' is followed by the parenthetical modifier 'stamped on these lifeless things,' and then its grammatical objects: 'The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.'
To resolve the syntactical inversion and connect the verb to its delayed direct objects, revealing that the passions outlived both the sculptor's hand and the king's heart.

Key Concept

Analyzing grammatical relationships and syntactical inversion in poetry.
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Topics

Poetic Diction and Syntax

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