Dancin' in the ruins

Shelley's "Ozymandias" is one of my fave poems. Let's be honest, it's one of many people's favourites.

I first encountered it in junior high and can still picture the spirit-duplicated handout, with a purple illo of a crumbled statue next to the purple text.

What I don't recall is being taught that the poem was written as part of a competition (in 1817-18) between Percy and his buddy Horace Smith.

Here's HS's sonnet, also titled "Ozymandias":


In Egypt’s sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert 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,—
Naught 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.


You'll agree it doesn't flow as well, nor is it as evocative.

However, while the punctuation displeases the modern eye, hearing it read improves the experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNOCY9Vp4nk

The octave may perhaps be dismissed beside Shelley's work. The sestet at least contains the interesting idea of a ruined future London (populated by rockers and skate punks?).

And that final couplet is a stone-cold killer.