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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. Who is the author of "Ozymandias"?

2. In lines 6 and 7, "Tell that its sculptor well those passions read/ Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things," what it is that is "stamped," on the "lifeless things"?

3. Which is the best description of the statue's expression?

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

5. Which lines contain caesuras?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. Describe the poem's form.

6. Briefly summarize the action of the poem.

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

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

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 imagery of "Ozymandias." Describe the poems images and then show how they function to support the poem's overall meaning. 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.

(see the answer keys)

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