Poem: I Met A Traveler From An Antigue Land By ...

Poem: I Met A Traveler From an Antigue Land by Percy Bysshe Shelley

In 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley published a poem on the ephemeral nature of human kings and political powers:

I MET A TRAVELER FROM AN ANTIQUE LAND

I met a traveler 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.

Kingdoms rise and fall. For a moment in time, Pontius Pilate appeared sovereign over the man named, “Jesus.” But even in his wounded and abused condition, the True King turns the inquiry against Pilate, and the one who would be judge finds himself in the dock.

From a sermon by Glenn Durham, What is Truth? 5/27/2010