Read Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" (1818):
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,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Which of the following best describes how the juxtaposition between the inscription on the pedestal and the surrounding landscape contributes to the poem's thematic argument?
- It exposes the transience of political power and human hubris by contrasting the ruler’s self-aggrandizing claim with the barren, silent landscape that has outlasted his empire.Answer
- BIt weightily illustrates the author's personal anxiety about the decay of his own literary reputation, arguing that Shelley feared his poetry would eventually be forgotten.
- CIt establishes the pedestal as a primary symbol of the sculptor's artistic superiority, focusing on identifying the irony without explaining how it relates to the larger theme of decay.
- DIt reinforces a static tone of awe toward the ruler's accomplishments, arguing that the grandeur of the colossal wreck continues to inspire dread in the traveler.
- EIt claims that the king's works are still present in some form nearby, ignoring the punctuation and line breaks that isolate the pedestal's boast from the description of the empty desert.