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Ozymandias

A traveller describes a broken statue in the desert. The king's boast is still on it. Nothing else is left.

The Younger Memnon, a statue of Ramesses II that helped inspire Ozymandias, British Museum
The Younger Memnon, a statue of Ramesses II that helped inspire Ozymandias, British Museum. Photo by Nate Loper, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

This poem in five words

Brokenking'sstatueinsand

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The quotes

4 big quotes in this poem.

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Shelley · Ozymandias · power of humans · power of nature

The king's boast on his statue. Look at what I built and be afraid. Around it there is nothing.

Nothing beside remains

Shelley · Ozymandias · power of humans · power of nature · loss

The statue is broken. The empire is gone. The sand is what lasts.

The lone and level sands stretch far away

Shelley · Ozymandias · power of nature

Flat empty desert in every direction. Nature outlasts every king.

sneer of cold command

Shelley · Ozymandias · power of humans

The face on the statue is cruel and proud. The sculptor caught it. The king did not notice.

Next →London: Blake hears London's chained misery
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The words of the book come from the AQA Poems Past and Present anthology, Power and Conflict cluster (poems quoted briefly for study; older poems are public domain). Every quote was checked against it. Paintings and drawings are public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each one. Notes by Akash Wadhwani. Copy it. Print it. Share it. No sign-up.
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