Paraphrase

Ozymandias

I encountered a man from an ancient country
Who said: "Two massive and bodiless limbs of granite
Lie in the hot sun. Close by on the sand
Partly embedded, a broken face rests, whose grimace
And chapped lip and growl of harsh order
Say that its builder well those dreams understood
That persevere enshrined in dead matter
The palm that teased them and the core that consumed
Upon the mount was inscribed
'I am Ozymandias, Ruler of all.
View my triumphs, ye powerful, and be sad. '
Nothing near is spared. Surrounded the rotting pieces
Of that humongous mess, endless and plain,
The one flat stretch of small gravel extends into the distance."