Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 8 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What title does Ozymandias give himself in the statue's inscription?
2. Which is the best description of the statue's expression?
3. In line 1, what word does the speaker use to describe the land where the traveler has been?
4. In line 4, "Half sunk a shattered visage lies," what does the word "visage" refer to?
5. 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”?
Short Essay Questions
1. Identify the three voices heard in "Ozymandias."
2. Describe the poem's form.
3. Explain the irony of the poem's ending.
4. What poetic techniques create impact in the line, "Half sunk a shattered visage lies" (line 4)?
5. What claims does the poem make about the statue's sculptor?
6. Briefly summarize the action of the poem.
7. How does the epithet that Ozymandias gives himself help the reader understand the intentions behind his quote?
8. How does the poem's setting support its main point?
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 that analyzes "Ozymandias" as an artifact of English Romanticism. Explain the key characteristics of the style and subject matter of Romanticism, place Shelley within this tradition, and then show how "Ozymandias" reflects this tradition. Use both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem to support your claims, and cite all sources in MLA format.
Essay Topic 3
The passage from Ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus that both Shelley and Smith used as the basis for their poems is this:
One of these, made in a sitting posture, is the greatest in all Egypt, the measure of his foot exceeding seven cubitts. This piece is not only commendable for its greatness, but admirable for its cut and workmanship, and the excellency of the stone. In so great a work there is not to be discerned the least flaw, or any other blemish.
Upon it there is this inscription: – 'I am Osymandyas, king of kings; if any would know how great I am, and where I lie, let him excel me in any of my works.’ (The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian, translated by George Booth, page 53).
Write an essay that considers how Shelley transformed this source material into the action of "Ozymandias." What did he keep? What did he cut? What did he add or reshape? How do these choices reveal Shelley's thematic intentions? Support your claims with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from both "Ozymandias" and the passage by Diodorus Siculus.
|
This section contains 870 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
