Question

What is the subject and theme of "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley?

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,
a Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
N
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."
O A.
The subject is death and the theme is that death overpowers all.
© B.
The subject is art and IS the theme is that art can immortalize beauty.
© C. The subject is human vanity and the theme iS that human vanity is destroyed by time.
© D.
The subject is immortality and the theme iS that human vanity is not subject to time and natur

Answer 1

A. The subject is death and the theme is that death overpowers all.

Step-by-step explanation:

"Ozymandias" is a poem that portrays the moment when the speaker came across the statue of a king, who was very grand and powerful while he was alive, but who now, years after his death, is nothing more than a mere destroyed statue. , thrown in the sand. The power and kingdom that this king built was completely defeated by death, which is more powerful than he.

Thus, we can see that the poem has death as its main subject. In addition, the poem is about death's ability to dominate everything the way it wishes.

The subject of a poem refers to the main element that the poet wants to address within the text. In contrast, the theme is the message the author wants to convey through the poem.