Ozymandias

by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818) — a poem card from Justes Mots

A shattered boast in the desert sand: every empire is on loan, and the lone, level sands stretch far away.

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, 5
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:…

Themes: reflection