“In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desart knows: -
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." - The City's gone, -
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder,- and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.”
On a Stupendous Leg of Granite, Discovered Standing by Itself in the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted Below (published February 1, 1818); written in a competition with Percy Bysshe Shelley, for which Shelley wrote "Ozymandius".
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Horace Smith 5
English poet and novelist 1779–1849Related quotes

“With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities”
Music and Moonlight (1874), Ode
Context: With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.

Introduction, Sec. 4
De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book II

[Ashley, Montagu, Growing Young, Granby, Massachusetts, Bergin & Garvey, 1989, 120]

Some Kind of Wonderful (1961), Co-written with Gerry Goffin, first recorded by The Drifters
Song lyrics, Singles