"Nothing lasts"

In "Ozymandias", the speaker is brought to a desert scene, by a story shared by "a traveler from an antique land" (p. 721, line 1). The description of the "shattered visage", with "frown", "wrinkled lips", and "sneer of cold command", tell of a stubbornly proud man. The "king of kings" who sought to remain eternally great, has vanished from physical existence, along with the kingdom he built. He remains only in a deteoirating sculpture and in the story shared by travelers. But even though his memory remains in the story and stone, we are told that "Nothing beside remains". The sands that may eventually cover the sculpture and the words it contains, have remained. The land that Ozymandias once ruled has remained. His name has remained. But Ozymandias himself has not remained. The real flesh and blood of a human being never lasts on this earth.