Percy Bysshe Shelley & Ozymandias

In 1817 the British Museum announced that soon it would have on display a massive head of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. The statue did not actually arrive in Britain until 1821, but the mere news of its coming was enough to inspire Percy Bysshe Shelley who penned a sonnet exploring the fleeting nature of power and the inevitable decline of all empires. Written in 1817 and first published in 1818, the poem recounts the tale of a traveller who discovers the ruined statue of an ancient king in the desert. This king once boasted of his mighty works, yet all that remains now is a shattered visage and a few inscriptions, surrounded by endless sands.

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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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