Ozymandias
Poem: “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Public domain.
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 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.
From the Writer’s Almanac by Garrison Keillor
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Great choice…Kind of makes you realize that everyone is mortal.
and there’s “a season to every purpose under heaven” too.. I liked it for the same reason.