Adam Roberts, “Ozymandias Replies”:

So, friend, you think my face and legs in stone
Are signs that I have failed? Friend, think again.
When I ascended to my marble throne
The land was forest, meadow, lakeside glen.
I took it and I wasted it. This desert tract
Stands as my most expansive monument:
Dead-life, as blank as hope, as bald as fact.
I made a world of sand. And it’s this spent
Stage-set, bleached clean, that I am proudest of —
More than my palaces and bling and war —
Because it’s the perfection of my love
When my rule’s push came to my people’s shove.
We tyrants know what power’s really for.
I made my desolation to endure.