Sunday, September 21, 2025

Apropos of nothing, Ozymandias


I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desart.[d] 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!"

No thing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.


 Percy Shelley, "Ozymandias", 1819 edition

From Google AI:-

"Ozymandias" refers primarily to the famous 1818 poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which explores the theme of the impermanence of human power and achievement through the image of a broken statue in the desert. Ozymandias was also the ancient Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, a powerful figure who commissioned massive statues to ensure his legacy, which Shelley's poem satirizes by depicting the decay of one such monument. The term has also been used in other works, such as the title of a significant episode in the TV show Breaking Bad and the villain in the comic series Watchmen.  

I thank you....

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