Dubai the King of Kings

Dubai the King of Kings

Amid all the recent brouhaha over the demise of Dubai, many words of wisdom (and otherwise) have been published. But perhaps the most relevant were those written in 1818 by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

His poem 'Ozymandias' and his "trunkless legs of stone",  were the focus of an article written by the renowned columnist of the UK’s Guardian newspaper, Simon Jenkins.  Jenkins was using Shelley’s poem as a parallel to the modern plight of Dubai. And as a matter of fact he did so before the latest Dubai crash.

The poem tells the story of a traveller who had seen the remains of a once impressive statue deep in the desert. “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone,” are all that’s left standing. Lying half sunk in the sand lies the statue’s toppled head. 

An inscription boasts:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of Kings:

Look on my Works, and despair!"

Well Ozymandias may once have been a mighty King with an impressive realm but the poem reveals how now nothing remains of his magnificent “works”.  They have crumbled and disappeared, his civilisation is gone, all has turned to sand.

The funny thing is when Simon Jenkins wrote his column warning of the impending doom facing Dubai, he was derided by all and sundry. 

Not any more. You have to hope Shelley’s final  words will not one day apply to the dream that was Dubai:

"...nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."