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.

Answer 1

As you may know, situational irony is where the exact opposite of a hoped-for result is the outcome.   We can see this in the words that appear on the pedestal:  “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”  This is situational irony because the works being spoken of are in shambles and would be nothing of which to be proud or even despair at as they once probably were/once intended to be.