Ozymandias (Poem) by 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 upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside6 remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Word Meaning: Vocabulary

1. trunkless: without the upper body (the main part of the body of a human being or an animal, excluding the head, neck, and limbs)
2. visage: face
3. sneer: facial expression of scorn or hostility in which the upper lip may be raised
4. read: interpreted
5. stamped: sculpted
6. beside: else