An existential pit of despair

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

For how long?

There’s a poem by Shelly about Oxymandius, better known as Ramseses II.

Many of us did it in school. Shelly describes a visitor to a foreign land who sees an inscription on the bust of a ruined statue saying “look on my work ye mighty and despair”. The the poet continues:

“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away”

This is to mock the man’s hubris.

Nevertheless there’s a poet writing about Oxymandius thousands of years later and here’s me talking about him now. So he’s not dead in the second sense yet.

Moral of the story - if you dont want to be forgotten be a famous monarch full of hubris and build loads of statues.