Adam Roberts, “Ozymandias Replies”:
So, friend, you think my face and legs in stone Are signs that I have failed? Friend, think again. When I ascended to my marble throne The land was forest, meadow, lakeside glen. I took it and I wasted it. This desert tract Stands as my most expansive monument: Dead-life, as blank as hope, as bald as fact. I made a world of sand. And it’s this spent Stage-set, bleached clean, that I am proudest of — More than my palaces and bling and war — Because it’s the perfection of my love When my rule’s push came to my people’s shove. We tyrants know what power’s really for. I made my desolation to endure.