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Sunday, August 4, 2013

OZYMANDIAS

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

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!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

- Happy Birthday Percy Bysshe Shelley, born 4 August 1792.

One of the major English Romantic poets, regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as his political and social views, he did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death at age twenty-nine.

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