Ode to Ozymandias | Teen Ink

Ode to Ozymandias

June 27, 2010
By wdickinson GOLD, Fredericksburg, Virginia
wdickinson GOLD, Fredericksburg, Virginia
10 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. <br /> -Oscar Wilde


I, to
You, Supreme High Leader, now repent.
My sins, although so great, are not excess.
If you will have me blatantly destroyed,
I will not be the one to die this day.

Suppressive actions by your government,
Corrupt and lacking morals, just to start.
Yet without this, you say our great country
Will fail! Is’t true? Somehow I doubt your claims.

I
Am led to my last living sight on Earth:
A simple wooden platform made for those
Who You, O Supreme Leader have condemned
To only Death, whose clutches I don’t feel.

That
Is right, my King, I will not die today.
Instead protect yourself for He now comes for you.

Your falsebound kingdom falls to ruin.
Great monuments crash down about your head.
Your so-called works, so “mighty,” now will burn.
“Look on his fall, ye mighty, and despair.”

I
Despair for you, o lord, and your false idols.
Conceited king of false lands now forgotten.
you were Ozymandias king of none.
Nothing beside remains.

The author's comments:
This piece is a bit of a warning about corruption and what power brings. Of course Ozymandias thinks he is in the right, but is blinded, though not completely of his own doing.

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