Ozymandias is a sonnet written by Percy Shelley, first published on January 11, 1818. It speaks of a magnificent stone statue depicting an ancient king who calls on those viewing it to stand in awe of his works. However, in the sonnet the statue has been destroyed and the works no longer remain. Here it is in full:
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.
I've not read up on the historical context for the poem nor of Shelley, though I'm sure there is lots of analysis out there. However, the resonance today is striking. It's easy to read as an indictment of a once-great country or of a certain man, but it's also just as easy to read as a personal challenge to hubris and ego. As great as we think we are personally, nationally, or as a civilization, we are likely to end up no better off than old Ozymandias (and that's if we're lucky). We should make January 11, 2018, 200 years after its publishing, a day of remembrance.
The real power of this poem comes out in the reading: Bryan Cranston, in a promo for the TV show Breaking Bad, does a tremendous job. Incidentally, I've not watched Breaking Bad, but who knew Tim Whatley would go on to such things?
Addendum - Someone made an animation set to the same audio, but more illustrative of the sonnet's content, which is pretty cool:
