Ozymandias

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The ruins of the statue of Rameses the Great, which inspired this sonnet.

I met a traveler from an antique land who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand alone 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 it's sculpture well those passions read, which yet survive, stamped on those lifeless thongs, 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 upon 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.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Comments

rain said…
I really don't like Rameses. Accounts say that he's responsible for the death of Pharaoh Tuntankhamon & Queen Nefertiti...
October 07, 2005 5:17 PM
Ronald Allan said…
I guess. But this post is more of a homage to the literary genius of Percy Bysshe Shelley than it is a tribute to Rameses.

Just look at his choice of wordings...just divine. :-)
October 07, 2005 8:15 PM
TK said…
touche (I got the spelling wrong)
October 07, 2005 9:15 PM
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