# Help me dig up a poetry reference...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-dig-up-a-poetry-reference/6450
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 22, 2000, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-dig-up-a-poetry-reference/6450 "2000-01-22T23:28:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2000, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-dig-up-a-poetry-reference/6450/1 "2000-01-22T23:28:00Z")
I’ve been trying to dig up the words to a poem I read way back in my senior year of high school. So far, search engines have been of no help, largely due to the fact that I cannot remember how the title of the poem is spelled, nor can I remember the author. I believe the poem is called “Ozmandius” or some variation on that spelling. Can any Dopers out there give me the correct spelling of the name, as well as the author’s name?
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-dig-up-a-poetry-reference/6450/2 "2000-01-22T23:34:00Z")
The poem is Ozymandias, and the author is Percy Bysshe Shelley.
- Rick
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2000, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-dig-up-a-poetry-reference/6450/3 "2000-01-22T23:36:00Z")
[http://www.mathematik.uni-stuttgart.de/CIP/wojnowmo/labyrinth/ozymandias.html](http://www.mathematik.uni-stuttgart.de/CIP/wojnowmo/labyrinth/ozymandias.html)
> [@](#):
>
> I met a traveler 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.
My cat (Ozzie) is named after this poem!
- Rick
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### Author:  [@ScottyMo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScottyMo)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2000, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-dig-up-a-poetry-reference/6450/4 "2000-01-22T23:39:00Z")
_Ozymandius_
by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
I met a traveler 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 Ozymandius, King of Kings:
Look upon 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.
---
### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2000, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-dig-up-a-poetry-reference/6450/5 "2000-01-23T02:30:00Z")
Six minutes. Not too bad… 🙂
- Rick
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### Author:  [@Nekosoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nekosoft)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2000, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-dig-up-a-poetry-reference/6450/6 "2000-01-23T04:22:00Z")
## Ozymandias? You think poetry, I think comic books! Reference **Watchmen** by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It’s superheroes, to be sure, but it’s damn good. I’ve got two copies: one to read, one to lend.
I go as Rorschach for Halloween every year.