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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A LITTLE WHILE by HORATIO (HORATIUS) BONAR THE WORLD-SOUL by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE TWO RABBIS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE YOUNG CARPENTER by AL-RUSAFI THE LONE BUTTE by EVA K. ANGLESBURG THE SICK KING IN BOKHARA by MATTHEW ARNOLD COMPLAINS OF THE COURT by PHILIP AYRES HAYMAKERS' SONG, FR. KING RENE'S HONEYMOON by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |