Baron

Most people don't know that the poem resulted from a wager between Shelley and his friend Horace Smith as to who could get a poem about Ramesses the Great published. Shelley's was the first to be seen in print, in The Examiner - This is Smith's version:

Ozymandias.

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.

This was my favorite poem growing up.

Thanks, Bloggs...neat little fun fact. And thanks to the Baron--a favorite of mine as well. When my daughters were young I used to put snippets of poetry on the dry-erase board in their room. It was the start of many interesting conversations. Ozymandias made the cut as did many by Dickinson and Robert Browning.