Ozymandias

Ozymandias
By: Percy Shelley

I met a traveler 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.


This poem begins by the author saying he heard this story from a traveler. In the middle of the desert, there is a toppled statue. All that remains of this statue is the feet on a pedestal and its head half buried in the sand. The statues face is fierce and snarling, made to scare people off. On the pedestal it warns, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” But you look around and there is nothing but sand and ruins.

I think the moral of this poem is to not think of yourself as powerful and self-important. You can put all your priorities to building yourself a kingdom but it all goes to waste. You can’t defeat time, time affects us all.