Ozymandias - P. B. Shelley (Powerful Life Poetry)

Read by Vincent Price
Music by Slow Meadow
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Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the most highly regarded and influential poets of the 19th century. Shelley's poem “Ozymandias” famously describes a ruined statue of an ancient king in an empty desert.

This ambiguous ode carries between its folds heaps of philosophical matters; the poet uses a shattered statue to highlight the ephemeral nature of fame, vanity and power.

Nothing lasts forever. Glory, reputation, conquests or occupations, everything will come to an end eventually.

[grandmasterjayd]

I just realized Ozymandias is being told from the perspective of a man recalling the story of another man who saw the ruins. He’s that forgotten.

[sammomin]

Shelley wrote this poem against an important historical backdrop: Napoleon was ruling France and King George III was ruling England. Both rulers were wreaking havoc on the world and Shelley meant to remind them of their destiny.

[swolejeezy]

The point of this poem is that in the end, no one will know or care who you were and what you did. Ozymandias, Ramses the Great, was the king of kings in his day, a god; and even he is forgotten. Quite literally the sands of time have buried him and his city, and whatever good he did is lost to time. Nothing beside remains.

[its_leyl.a]

"The earth is littered with kingdoms that once though they were immortal"

[life-hardenedschoolstudent]

_"My name is Homo Sapien, Hominid of hominids; Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"_

-Exurb1a

[tellntales]

The right poetry, the right music, and the right voice. The three aspects that can change a heart, all used together, change many hearts. Keep doing more of these poems. They deserve to be told with such power.

[uraveragehoovy]

This poem is a beautiful reminder of the fragile and often short-lived nature of power.

Regardless of how powerful you were, how wealthy you were, how charismatic or great, no man can escape the paradoxically cruel yet universally fair fate that awaits at the end of the line.

Once you’re gone it isn’t your fortune, fame, or strength that puts you in the history books, but rather your effect on the world. That is to say, you aren’t defined by what you had, you were defined by what you did with it.

[jazee]

No one could've read this better than Vincent Price. Powerful yet soothing voice.

[sudipto]

Big thanks to Sad-ist for showing us this wonderful piece of art!!

[adamtodd]

Beloved Vincent Price - always loved his voice

[matiassilva]

What if Ozymandias knew of this and was warning us?

Despair, look at all my work, forgotten by time, despair, for it is impossible to remain. Look upon my work, despair, for there is nothing to see.

[haniaatif]

The background melody and the man's voice gave me chills.

[nowhereman]

Vincent Price is good in literally everything he does.

[howiestones]

I actually find the poem very motivating, and freeing.
My interpretation is that Shelley points to fragility and meaninglessness in fighting for status and power in of it self. Ozymandias is building his story of his own greatness, clinging on to the ide of who he is, tryng to create security and pemanence in an universe of inpermanence.

Eventually it is all swept away, but some feeble ruins, which now almost comicaly serves as a reminder of Ozymandias ignorance.

For me this does not mean that nothing matters. It points to just being natural, feet on the ground. It points to that we are all vulnrable beeings, and in this we are all the same.
It points to the possibility of dropping the false security of power and status, and embracing reality, the humbling reality of death, vulnrability and impermanence, which we all share.

For me the last sentence "Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.”, is an invitation to stepping away from the constructing and defence of a story of who you are (the wreck) and into the eternal nature, and discovering the wast boundless nature that lives in all of us (consciousness).

So it is motivating in an spiritual sense.

[Pompadourius]

So I'm not very knowledgeable in poems, but I think that from among the ones I've read/listened to, this one is my favorite. It's such a powerful message, and so iconic.

[kd]

Had to see what this was all about from Sad-ist

[navibobo]

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.”

[rishabhrockstar]

I read this one in school, this poem is so great that it became a symbol for BREAKING BAD and made the Greatest Episode Ever....

[thecriticalscholar]

The irony of the poem lies in the contrast between the grandiose boast of the inscription and the desolate reality of the ruined statue. Despite Ozymandias' claims of greatness and power, all that remains of his empire are broken ruins in the desert, surrounded by empty sands.

[Redwoodtree]

Vincent Price's recitation is so powerful, peaceful, liberating and mesmerizing.