Which of the following is a work by Percy Bysshe Shelley?

Which of the following is a work by Percy Bysshe Shelley?

• A. Ozymandias
• B. Don Juan
• C. The Prelude
• D. The Odyssey

Answer: (A)

The question asks you to identify a work authored by Percy Bysshe Shelley, highlighting Shelley's place among Romantic poets and the kinds of poems he wrote. Ozymandias fits Shelley's oeuvre and themes: it’s a short Romantic sonnet that uses a desert ruin to reflect on time, memory, and the limits of human power. The poem presents a traveler’s tale about a shattered statue in the sands, with the famous reminder that empires rise and fall while art and truth endure only imperfectly. This focus on ruins, impermanence, and the inner moral lesson is characteristic of Shelley’s poetry. Don Juan is by Lord Byron, a different Romantic poet with a different signature work. The Prelude is by William Wordsworth, not Shelley. The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic traditionally attributed to Homer. So the Shelley work here is Ozymandias.

The question asks you to identify a work authored by Percy Bysshe Shelley, highlighting Shelley's place among Romantic poets and the kinds of poems he wrote. Ozymandias fits Shelley's oeuvre and themes: it’s a short Romantic sonnet that uses a desert ruin to reflect on time, memory, and the limits of human power. The poem presents a traveler’s tale about a shattered statue in the sands, with the famous reminder that empires rise and fall while art and truth endure only imperfectly. This focus on ruins, impermanence, and the inner moral lesson is characteristic of Shelley’s poetry.

Don Juan is by Lord Byron, a different Romantic poet with a different signature work. The Prelude is by William Wordsworth, not Shelley. The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic traditionally attributed to Homer. So the Shelley work here is Ozymandias.