Ozymandias

I met a traveller from antique land,

Who said__“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert…Near them,on the sand,

Half sunk as shattered visage lies,whose frown,

And wrinkled lip,and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor will 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 Mightyz and despair!

He spoke of towers that touched the sky,

Of gates of bronze and banners high,

Of courts where flatterers bent the knee,

And thrones that ruled across the sea.

“There was a monarch,” the traveler said,

“Whose word was law, whose foes all fled.

He built his empire with fire and steel,

And swore his power none could unseal.

He carved his face on mountains tall,

He raised his voice in marble halls,

He chained the rivers, bent the land,

And called the earth beneath his hand.

On every stone his name was cast,

‘Forever shall this glory last.’

And on the pedestal bold and clear,

He marked the words all men should fear:

‘Behold my might, O all who see,

No greater ruler lives than me!’

But time is patient, silent, sure,

It waits for none, it will endure.

The storms came howling, the rivers dried,

The walls fell in, the gardens died.

The king who thought the stars his crown,

Now sleeps beneath the crumbled town.

The throne is dust, the crown is clay,

The courtiers’ songs have passed away.

And where his armies once did tread,

Now only whispers walk instead.

The market stalls, the city’s roar,

Are lost beneath the desert floor.

The statues stand with broken eyes,

Their mouths still curled in cold disguise.

The sculptor caught that haughty sneer,

Yet none remain to tremble here.

The wind moves freely where he reigned,

The sand has swallowed all he gained.

The sun looks down with equal flame,

On beggar’s hut and king’s great name.

What lessons lie in ruins vast?

That nothing made by man will last.

That pride, though tall, is hollow bone,

And time will claim what man has sown.

I walked beyond that shattered place,

And thought of empires, face to face—

Of cities shining, towers of glass,

Of rulers certain they will last.

They too will fade, their voices still,

Their monuments the earth will fill.

For history writes with patient hand,

And levels kingdoms, sea, and sand.

The traveler turned, his tale was done,

But in his eyes the setting sun

Reflected truths the world denies—

That every mighty empire dies.

Yet from the wreck, a seed may grow,

A flower blooms where ashes blow.

And though the stone may break apart,

The lesson lingers in the heart.

So build your castles, carve your name,

But know that time treats all the same.

Live not for crowns that turn to dust,

But deeds of kindness, love, and trust.

For when the monuments decay,

And winds have blown the years away,

It will not be the tyrant’s might,

But gentle hearts that shine in light.

Nothing besides remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

So let the sands record the truth,

That power fades, but not the proof

Of lives well lived with open hands,

More lasting than the shifting sands.

For love outlasts the gilded throne,

It plants a seed, though small, well-sown.

And when the stars forget our name,

The kindness lingers just the same.

The stone will crack, the crown will rust,

The banners turn to ash and dust.

But mercy’s flame will not expire—

It glows beyond the funeral pyre.

And thus the desert whispers clear:

What’s built in love outlives the years.



And in the sands where kingdoms fall,

The earth remembers kindness most of all.