Read the following poem and answer questions
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 lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
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.
What are “trunkless” legs? (line 2)
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → legs without a body
The trunk of a person is the main part of the body, without the head, arms and legs.
- “-less” means without. So trunkless legs are legs with no body above them.
- The poem says, “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Stand in the desert”.
- The upper part of the statue has fallen. Only the two huge legs are still standing. Example: After the fall, Ravi had bruises on his arms and trunk.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: legs carved from a tree trunk — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: trunk here is not the trunk of a tree. The legs are “of stone”, not wood.
Option 3: legs without feet — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: the trunk is the part of the body above the legs. Feet are at the other end, below the legs.
Option 4: legs half-buried in the sand — Incorrect. Wrong part of the passage: it is the broken face that lies “Half sunk” in the sand. The legs “Stand in the desert”.