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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OZYMANDIAS, by HORACE SMITH Poet's Biography
First Line: In egypt's sandy silence, all alone
Last Line: Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Horatio
Variant Title(s): On A Stupendous Leg Of Granite
Subject(s): Egypt; Rameses Ii, King Of Egypt; Ruins; Statues; Transience; Vanity; Impermanence
First Line: In egypt's sandy silence, all alone
Last Line: Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Horatio
Variant Title(s): On A Stupendous Leg Of Granite
Subject(s): Egypt; Rameses Ii, King Of Egypt; Ruins; Statues; Transience; Vanity; Impermanence
In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the desert knows: --
"I am great Ozymandias," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
The wonders of my hand." -- The city's gone, --
Nought but the leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, -- and some hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when through the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the wolf in chase,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
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