Ozymandias
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.”
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Not that it takes anything away really but Ozymandias is just the Greek name for Ramesses II, known to this day as the greatest Egyptian Pharoah. Nobody ever did surpass him.
Oh snap, I always thought Ozymandias was fictional. Thanks for the info!
Brian Cranston reading of this poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sum6A2enC6sIt was made for marketing Breaking Bad, butt is still amazing
In Egypt’s sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows:— “I am great OZYMANDIAS,” saith the stone, “The King of Kings; this mighty City shows The wonders of my hand.”— The City’s gone,— Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder — and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro’ the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
— Horace Smith, “Ozymandias”
I understand why Shelley’s take is the one more acclaimed,
but I prefer Horace Smith and for that I am not ashamed.
