Cenotaph
I met a traveler from an antique world
Who said: Four vast and trunkless legs of gold
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a fallen banner lies, whose stars
And wrinkled stripes, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its maker well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"Richard Nixon, President of the United States:
We came in peace for all mankind."
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Who said: Four vast and trunkless legs of gold
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a fallen banner lies, whose stars
And wrinkled stripes, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its maker well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"Richard Nixon, President of the United States:
We came in peace for all mankind."
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.