Remember Ozymandias

[hypatia_66]

With so many contemporary rulers and politicians puffed up with misguided, narcissistic self-importance and hubris, it's a relief to remember Shelley's ironic poem, Ozymandias - about a huge monument to a tyrant lying in ruins in the desert. Its inscription in the last lines of the poem:

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.

The decaying ruins of the (VIP?) seating area at Hitler's rally ground at Nuremberg.

Tyrants and narcissists alike come to an end. There's hope for us all. Happy Independence Day to American friends!