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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 8 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of landscape has the traveler been traveling through?

2. How many voices are heard in "Ozymandias"?

3. Whose "passions" are referred to in line 6, "Tell that its sculptor well those passions read"?

4. What technique is employed in the poem's final two lines, "Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare/ The lone and level sands stretch far away”?

5. What technique is used in line 8, "The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Identify the three voices heard in "Ozymandias."

2. Describe the poem's form.

3. How does the poem's setting support its main point?

4. What claims does the poem make about the statue's sculptor?

5. How does the epithet that Ozymandias gives himself help the reader understand the intentions behind his quote?

6. What poetic techniques create impact in the line, "Half sunk a shattered visage lies" (line 4)?

7. Explain the irony of the poem's ending.

8. Briefly summarize the action of the poem.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read one of Shelley's more obviously political poems: either "The Masque of Anarchy" or "England in 1819" (both are available online). Then, write an essay comparing and contrasting his approach to political subject matter in the poem you chose and "Ozymandias." Use textual evidence from both works as support for your ideas; cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you explicate the poem's rhyme scheme and discuss the effects created by this rhyme scheme. How does rhyme link or emphasize ideas and affect the poem's flow, pace, and tone? Use both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about meter in "Ozymandias." Be sure to discuss both Shelley's use of iambic pentameter and his departures from this meter. Offer insight into the effect of these departures, using correct literary terminology for types of metrical feet as you discuss the form these departures take. Use both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem to support your claims.

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