Ozymandias
by percy bysshe shelley
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."
a.
the subject is death and the theme is that death overpowers all.
b.
the subject is art and the theme is that art can immortalize beauty
the subject is human vanity and the theme is that human vanity is destroyed by time.
c.
d.
the subject is immortality and the theme is that human vanity is not subject to time and nature.