| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. Ozymandias | | By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) |
| | | 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; | |
| And on the pedestal these words appear:— | |
| ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: | 10 |
| 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!” | | | | |
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