‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Reading by S.A. Todd

Very well read. One of my favourite poems.

Back in the day, we were driving through the Sudanese desert in search of a ruined city called Al-Musawarat Al-Sufra and stopped for a toilet break. While I was availing myself of the break, I discovered I was stood next to a small sphinx (the type that lined entrances to temples), its head and upper body poking out of the sand. Apart from us and our Land Rover, there was nothing but sand, rocky desert and the occasional stunted shrub. That was my Ozymandias moment.

Thanks for the reading, SA.

Thank you — I love this poem. When I first fell in love with it, though, I didn’t imagine that its prophetic message about once-great civilizations falling, might some day possibly apply to us. Now, it has very sad overtones to me.

Always a pleasure to record for the SCP.

I’m glad to hear that people enjoyed it, thanks all! – Steve