"Look on my works, ye Mighty,"
read the placard in the sand,
yet all around lay trackless waste
in which no other works I scanned.
I drew from this a lesson, grim
Impermanence of man,
But then a voice came from within
the stone to whisper this demand:
"Consider this: a forest grove
Once stood where I forgotten stand.
You still, I fear, don't understand.
We made this desert from the land."
Context: Percy Bysshe Shelley's classic poem Ozymandias.
©1997 Alan P. Scott. All rights reserved.
This document was last updated January 4, 2000.
Contact me:
ascott@pacifier.com