Who wrote Ozymandias?

• A. Percy Bysshe Shelley
• B. John Keats
• C. William Wordsworth
• D. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Answer: (A)

Authorship of a famous Romantic-era poem is what this question tests. Ozymandias is written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a central figure of English Romanticism, first published in 1818. The poem follows a traveler who describes a ruined statue in the desert, with a pedestal bearing the boastful inscription of an ancient king. Shelley's irony—“Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”—shows that power and monuments fade over time, while art and memory endure through language. The other poets listed are known for different works—Keats for odes, Wordsworth for nature-inspired lyrics, Coleridge for imaginative and visionary verse—so Shelley is the correct author for this poem.