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. (10 points) a From an antique land b Cold command c Boundless and bare d Those passions read
Percy Bysshe Shelley's (1792–1822) poem "Ozymandias" is as a whole situational and verbal irony. Cold command is situational irony that because of the king's statue present condition or situation, it is in no position to give a command. The reader too does not expect any command from a half-sunk statue with a shattered visage and trunkless legs. The statue's condition described before and after this phrase makes it clear that king and his kingdom is ruined so he cannot command.
Situational Irony is a literary device in which something happens that is very different from what is normally expected.
Irony is a literary device in which some thing said or happened is opposite to what is expected.
