Transient

Ozymandias

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 on 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.'

[Percy Bysshe Shelley]


I love this poem. I first read it for my A Levels, (Too, too many years ago).

It really struck a chord for me, How we arrogantly think that we can impose some permanence on our surroundings, when in the future, it will just be so much dust and driftwood. I'm not sure whether I find that thought terrifying or comforting.

How insignificant we are.