Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" effectively conveys the theme that nothing lasts. He describes in the poem a message from a long-forgotten ruler, one that reveled in his power and tried to instill terror in his subjects. The narrator of the poem is being spoken to by a stranger about a faraway desert in which an ancient visage rests untouched. The visage is accompanied by a pedestal that tells of the glory of Ozymandias, a name no one knows in their present time. The small tribute to Ozymandias is cracked and damaged by the sun and the sand. This poem successfully conveys the theme that nothing lasts through its storytelling. The man relaying the message is a stranger, and presumably no one of consequence. He describes how