Paul Shapera
The Children of Empire
[Matthew]
Why? Why did it ever change?
I remember the time
Futures forward? wild and strange
We were lords of the sea
Lords of the air
Lords of the space above everywhere
Why? Who changed up these times?
Who can I blame?

We were young once too, you and I
We were young once too, you and I

You, you came after the golden age
And you think that you
Know better than all of us
[But I?], what if we were wrong?
What would that mean?

We were young once too, you and I
We were young once too, you and I

[Matthew, spoken]
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor 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:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'