- This article is about the poem. For the episode, see Ozymandias.
"Ozymandias" is an 1818 poem by English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. It tells the tale of a fallen empire and the ego of the one who once ruled it. A promo for second half of Season 5 features Bryan Cranston reading the poem. The antepenultimate episode was titled "Ozymandias" after the poem.
Poem[]
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.'
Video[]
External links[]
- Ozymandias on Wikipedia
- Ozymandias on Poetry Foundation