Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

I have refered to the following poem a couple of times recently and the reference was lost on my audience on both occassions. As I think it is even more relevant now that when it was written in  1818 I though I would reproduce it to introduce it to a slightly wider audience.

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`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".


I often think of this when I see or hear of misplaced priorities. So some things do need taken care of but ask yourself sometime who will look upon this mighty work and therefore should you care.