“Ozymandias,” Shelley’s famous poem, reveals the impermanence of human achievement. The poem describes a crumbling statue, a “colossal wreck” in the form of a long-lost king. The reader of the poem is thrice-removed from Ozymandias, as the speaker relates a story he heard from a traveller who encountered the statue in the desert. A plate beneath the statue reads “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Though Ozymandias presumably means that other mighty kings should despair at their inability to match his strength, the statement ironically evokes despair in the readers of the poem by reminding them of the impermanence of human works.