I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desart. 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 readWhich 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 decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.
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,— Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder,—and some Hunter may expressWonder like ours, when thro’ the wildernessWhere London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guessWhat powerful but unrecorded raceOnce dwelt in that annihilated place.
– Horace Smith.
Smith wrote his in competition with Shelly as per agreement. Sonnets are really bad genres for telling stories.
“Debt Free”: ROFL! “LIBERALS” look upon the disasters that were Bush and Cheney with a blind eye?? It’s the “conservatives” and especially the TEA types (as now constituted) who are totally blind to all the damage done, including across the entire Middle East, South Asia, and to our economy! The list of disasters is WAY to lengthy to address here, but several books have tried to sum them up…
Of course I’m reminded of Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes, realizing the apes had destroyed America and it was the Statue of Liberty. This interpretation is more accurate.
ConserveGov over 10 years ago
There will never be a statue to topple in good old Barry’s case.
Odon Premium Member over 10 years ago
Thanks for the context.
lonecat over 10 years ago
OzymandiasP. B. Shelly
I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desart. 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 readWhich 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 decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.
Thomas R. Williams over 10 years ago
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,— Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder,—and some Hunter may expressWonder like ours, when thro’ the wildernessWhere London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guessWhat powerful but unrecorded raceOnce dwelt in that annihilated place.– Horace Smith.
Smith wrote his in competition with Shelly as per agreement. Sonnets are really bad genres for telling stories.
Spyderred over 10 years ago
And good riddance too!
pirate227 over 10 years ago
Well it’s encouraging to know that Dubya was not a stupid as Cheney was crazy.
joe vignone over 10 years ago
Tweedle Darth and Tweedle Death
Dtroutma over 10 years ago
“Debt Free”: ROFL! “LIBERALS” look upon the disasters that were Bush and Cheney with a blind eye?? It’s the “conservatives” and especially the TEA types (as now constituted) who are totally blind to all the damage done, including across the entire Middle East, South Asia, and to our economy! The list of disasters is WAY to lengthy to address here, but several books have tried to sum them up…
Of course I’m reminded of Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes, realizing the apes had destroyed America and it was the Statue of Liberty. This interpretation is more accurate.
deadheadzan over 10 years ago
I first learned of Ozymandias when I started reading “Ozy and Millie”.