Colossal Wreck #

OZYMANDIAS.      Ozymandias
I MET a Traveller from an antique land,
Who said, “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart.  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!
No thing beside remains.  Round the decay
Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
GLIRASTES

Percy Bysshe Shelley in the January 11, 1818 edition of The Exmainer, under the penname of Glirastes (a "portmanteau of Shelley's own design, combining the Greek suffix erastes, meaning 'lover of,' and the Latin Gliridae, the scientific term for the family of the dormouse. Signing 'Ozymandias' with the name Glirastes, lover of dormice, was an inside joke and a show of Shelley's affection for Mary.").

Readings:

/misc | Jan 09, 2021


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