The poem Ozymandias, by Percy Shelley, is a political sonnet that recounts a story the speaker once heard from a traveler. The traveler describes exploring the desert in his home country and finding the remnants of an ancient statue: two massive stone legs and a stone head lying nearby in ruins. There is an inscription on the pedestal the legs stand on, which reads:
I am Ozymandias, King of Kings
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
The inscription is ironic, because nothing remains of the "works" it brags about. He led an ancient civilization with no remaining traces in the sprawling desert, and even the statue commemorating him is in ruins. Shelley's poem could be interpreted as a metaphor for political power, with the crumbling statue bragging about accomplishments lost to time representing the fleeting nature of power and empire.
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