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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.'
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Tuesday, December 31, 2002 |
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Read poems about / on: despair, heart, passion, work
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Comments about this poem (Ozymandias
by
Percy Bysshe Shelley
) |
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Sankaran Ayya (2/4/2012 6:57:00 AM)
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The last four lines are Shelley's acid spit on vain glory It is a great poem and my
very very favorite poem.
-KAVIN CHARALAN
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Len Webster (6/3/2011 7:44:00 AM)
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A magnificent sonnet, combining the starkness of the desert with the folly of human ambition.
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Somah Love (3/19/2010 2:26:00 PM)
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my friends i need help......how can i get the critical analysis of the poem? ? ? ?
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Joey Valenzuela (3/10/2010 8:09:00 PM)
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this poem implies that even how mighty and powerful the king is (or any ruler, or anybody) , he will still fall..........there are no permanent things in the world.....everything shall be ruined......
but despite that fact, we cant deny that his might and power shall be remembered, in any ways.....like the statues, textbooks, even in the minds.........
.......this poem is one among the many i liked...it was on our textbook when i was a junior.....
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Sarah Fetzer (3/10/2010 11:52:00 AM)
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This has always been one of my personal favorite poems. I love Shelley's beautiful yet haunting style.
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Michael Pruchnicki (3/10/2010 9:14:00 AM)
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The speaker meets a tourist who tells him about legs of stone that stand trunkless in desert sands. Flash to the pyramids and the sphinx and the other crumbling reminders of lost civilizations in places like ancient Egypt and Greece and Rome, where empires once existed ruled by all-powerful tyrants like Rameses and the Caesars. Even the ruins left by Hitler's Third Reich in the 20th century bear mute testimony to 'the heart that fed' these monstrous passions. Keep in mind the anthem of Hitler's Germany - 'Today Germany, tomorrow the world! ' Whether or not the subjects of these realms, ancient or modern, have any say in the matter is irrelevant in the long run. Praise be that the deeds of their masters live on in the printed word as words of caution for us who have survived the most recent holocaust. It can't happen today! some of us cry. We're all in the know!
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Kevin Straw (3/10/2010 6:01:00 AM)
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In the ancient world an enemy (tyrant or not) could be wiped of the face of the planet. The Ozymandias of today (Stalin, Hitler, Mao etc) live on in the printed word.
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JOSEPH POEWHIT (3/10/2010 2:57:00 AM)
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Words have a haunting undertone.
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Ramesh T A (3/10/2010 12:39:00 AM)
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Before the desert nothing can stand forever however mighty an emperor may be! A wonderful sonnet of Shelley to remember!
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Mario Rios Pinot (5/7/2009 4:47:00 PM)
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This poem is a bit of a cliche for those of us in the know but still merges the social criticism/ploitical and the poem by a master.
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Read all
23
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