History & Politics

Ozymandias

by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792–1822

History & PoliticsTime & BrevityArts & Sciences

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.”

✦ ✦ ✦

Empire reduced to a shattered face in the sand. The sculptor’s mockery outlasts the king it served, and Shelley lets the desert have the last word on every tyrant’s boast: ‘Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

MLA

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Ozymandias.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/shelley/0/.

Chicago

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Ozymandias.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/shelley/0/.

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