Question

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 [face] lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which still 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.

Select one piece of evidence that supports the situational irony of the poem.

Group of answer choices

From an antique land

Cold command

Boundless and bare

Those passions read

Answer 1

Boundless and bare

The pedestal describes Ozymandias as the "king of kings". A king is powerful and influential, and usually extremely wealthy. However, the wreck is describes as "boundless and bare", meaning large and empty.