Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

It’s interesting to see how many folks ask me if my choice of “Ozymandias” as my gamertag or domain name refers to the Watchmen character. In actuality, I’m a reformed ex-English major and I was originally drawn to the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley – it appears that poem, in turn, inspired the creators of Watchmen (and for good reason).

I registered the domain in 1997 – almost the pre-history of the internet, really. I’m actually quite glad I did as it’s amazing to see how many other people use Ozymandias as a nom de plume today – there are something like 10 “Ozymandias” variants for Gamertags alone on LIVE, and what appear to be hundreds of other similar screen names across the net.

Anyway, today I realized I had never posted or linked to the original poem. Hope you take a moment to read and enjoy it!

Ozymandias

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 shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d 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.

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