10 Greatest Poems Ever Written

8. “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

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.”

Meaning of the Poem

In this winding story within a story within a poem, Shelley paints for us the image of the ruins of a statue
of ancient Egyptian king Ozymandias, who is today commonly known as Ramesses II. This king is still
regarded as the greatest and most powerful Egyptian pharaoh. Yet, all that’s left of the statue are his
legs, which tell us it was huge and impressive; the shattered head and snarling face, which tell us how
tyrannical he was; and his inscribed quote hailing the magnificent structures that he built and that have
been reduced to dust, which tells us they might not have been quite as magnificent as Ozymandias
imagined. The image of a dictator-like king whose kingdom is no more creates a palpable irony. But,
beyond that there is a perennial lesson about the inescapable and destructive forces of time, history, and
nature. Success, fame, power, money, health, and prosperity can only last so long before fading into
“lone and level sands.”

There are yet more layers of meaning here that elevate this into one of the greatest poems. In terms of
lost civilizations that show the ephemeralness of human pursuits, there is no better example than the
Egyptians—who we associate with such dazzling monuments as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid at
Giza (that stands far taller than the Statue of Liberty)—yet who completely lost their spectacular
language, culture, and civilization. If the forces of time, history, and nature can take down the Egyptian
civilization, it begs the question, “Who’s next?” Additionally, Ozymandias is believed to have been the
villainous pharaoh who enslaved the ancient Hebrews and who Moses led the exodus from. If all
ordinary pursuits, such as power and fame, are but dust, what remains, the poem suggests, are spirituality
and morality—embodied by the ancient Hebrew faith. If you don’t have those then in the long run you
are a “colossal wreck.” Thus, the perfectly composed scene itself, the Egyptian imagery, and the Biblical
backstory convey a perennial message and make this a great poem.
7. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1795-1821)
Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Keats’s own drawing of the Grecian Urn.

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?

To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Meaning of the Poem

As if in response to Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” offers a sort of antidote to
the inescapable and destructive force of time. Indeed, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” was published in 1819
just a year or so after “Ozymandias.” The antidote is simple: art. The art on the Grecian urn—which is
basically a decorative pot from ancient Greece—has survived for thousands of years. While empires rose
and fell, the Grecian urn survived. Musicians, trees, lovers, heifers, and priests all continue dying decade
after decade and century after century, but their artistic depictions on the Grecian urn live on for what
seems eternity.

This realization about the timeless nature of art is not new now nor was it in the 1800s, but Keats has
chosen a perfect example since ancient Greek civilization so famously disappeared into the ages, being
subsumed by the Romans, and mostly lost until the Renaissance a thousand years later. Now, the ancient
Greeks are all certainly dead (like the king Ozymandias in Shelley’s poem) but the Greek art and culture
live on through Renaissance painters, the Olympic Games, endemic Neoclassical architecture, and, of
course, the Grecian urn.

Further, what is depicted on the Grecian urn is a variety of life that makes the otherwise cold urn feel
alive and vibrant. This aliveness is accentuated by Keats’s barrage of questions and blaring
exclamations: “More happy love! more happy, happy love!” Art, he seems to suggest, is more alive and
real than we might imagine. Indeed, the last two lines can be read as the urn itself talking: “Beauty is
truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” In these profound lines,
Keats places us within ignorance, suggesting that what we know on earth is limited, but that artistic
beauty, which he has now established is alive, is connected with truth. Thus, we can escape ignorance,
humanness, and certain death and approach another form of life and truth through the beauty of art. This
effectively completes the thought that began in Ozymandias and makes this a great poem one notch up
from its predecessor.