5.17.W - Lesson: "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Question 1

Percy Bysshe Shelley is a key figure in _____________.
Existentialism
German Romanticism
Sentimentalism
English Romanticism

Answer 1

English Romanticism

Question 2

The statue’s inscription in the poem is based on the inscription on the real Ozymandias statue. (t/F)

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In “Ozymandias,” the statue declares the greatness of the “King of Kings” and his empire, but the statue now lies in ruins surrounded by nothing but sand.

What literary device is at play here?

Irony
Point of view
Paradox
Mood

Answer 3

Irony

Question 4

Do you think this poem has a positive, negative, or neutral view of nature?

Use examples from the text. Pay close attention to the specific words that Shelley uses. Your answer should be 3–5 sentences.

Answer 4

This poem gives a negative view of nature. I say this because this poem makes you realize that things in life do not last and nothing is truly immortal here on Earth. One example from the poem that supports this is how the writings on the statue say to look at all my works and despair, yet Ironically, nothing remains.

Question 5

Do you think this poem mocks the empire and the Pharoah? Or does it consider them with compassion and understanding?

Use examples from the text. Pay close attention to the specific words that Shelley uses. Your answer should be 3–5 sentences.

Answer 5

This poem mocks the pharoah and his empire. I say this because the poem says that the statue stood by itself in the desert, and the writing on the pedestal brags about his empire and how he is the best ruler, yet nothing remains in the vast desert. However, this poem might mock the pharoah, but it also provides a lesson we can learn from, like how nothing in life will truly last forever.

Question 6

Read this short poem by Sarah Teasdale. It was written during World War I to encourage readers that, even after the senseless destruction of war, nature will survive and thrive.

(War Time)

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

Does this poem share the opinion of “Ozymandias” about the relationship between mankind and nature? Do the poems share the opinion that nature simply does not care about humans or human society?

Give your thoughtful opinion in 3–5 sentences.

Answer 6

These poems are similar in many ways, such as stating that humanity is not immortal because we will die one day; however, nature will always thrive. Both poems believe that nature does not care whether we are gone or still here. One example is in the poem Wartime when it says that “Spring herself when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone.” Another example is from the book Ozymandias, which states that the whole empire was lost or destroyed, and the one lone statue is all that remained.