"Ozymandias" is a famous sonnet written in 1818 by British Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)🎨, in which he reflects on hubris and the implacable passage of time and on the decline of leaders and their empires.
The poem is widely believed to have been inspired by a broken statue of Ramses II that is now, like many priceless Egyptian artifacts, in the possession of the British Museum.