The poem, Ozymandias, was composed in 1817. It is one of the most famous poems of P.B. Shelley. It was composed in competition with Shelley's friend, Horace Smith who wrote another sonnet on the same topic named Ozymandias. The theme of this sonnet is the decline of all leaders of all the empires they built. However mighty they have been in their time, history has destroyed them. Ozymandias was another name for Ramesses, a great Pharaoh king of ancient Egypt.

    Poems: Keats contains a full selection of Keats's work, including his lyric poems, narrative poems, letters, and an index of first lines.

    By the end of his brief career, he had written poems of such beauty, imagination, and generosity of spirit. This selection of Keats's poetry has been selected by Claire Tomalin.