Ozymandies

Here is a very short poem by P.B.Shelly. Can We have your comments please.

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 shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd 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.

Fantastic, I've gone over that one many times in my Lit classes. From the mightiest king, to the lowliest sculptor, everyone is destined to be forgotten.

What a great poem! I think that it also tells a lesson of pride and how useless it can be.

This is one of my favs too.

I had never known that poem until recently. I was watching a rerun of Northern Exposer and Maurice qouted the lines
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings" and then he said "I am Ozymandias; ruler of an empire that never was and never will be."

But to me in the Poem it seemed to be an empire that was once great and then swept away, rather then one that never was.

I have had students write a paper in which they compare this poem to the movie "Planet of the Apes"

omg i feel dumb cus i didnt understand that at all...lol :D

That planet of the apes comparison is really astute. Infact its so spot on that I'd wonder if the writer/director knew something of this poem.

I'm talking about the original of course.

Try mine and my electronic composer pal "Willpowa's unique version of this superb poem set to some thumping modern atmospheric music.

http://groups.msn.com/acousticmusiciansandpoetssoundarchive/poetrysounds.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&a mp;ID_Message=27&LastModified=4675387833588817 808

Regards.

Jim Clark London..England (one half of electro driven poetry duo "Hyperbole")

I wonder if the thread maker is looking for information in a school essay? :P

I had to do this poem in highschool and I quite enjoyed it.

To the person that didnt understand it, the poem is basically summed up in these lines
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

which is ironical, because his broken statue stands in the middle of a desert.

I found this piece of music with the lyrics of "Ozymandias"
Here it is:
Enjoy.