Is this a reference to "Ozymandias", from Shelley?

Question

In the book Deliverance Lost, from The Horus Heresy,

Corvax is given, by the Emperor himself, the secret of the location of the laboratory where the primarchs were created (or at least somewhere that holds this information, I have not finished it yet). When entering the cave in the mountain, there is some kind of poetry talking about Egypt and Ozymandias, written on the ground/walls.

In real life, there is a poem written by Shelley, called 'Ozymandias'.

While the coincidence seems very unlikely, I am wondering if this is an actual reference to this poem. While I do not know if this is the only existing piece of text that mentions Ozymandias, the content of the text in the book is very different from the real version I linked above.

So my question is: Is this really a reference, as I suspect, to the real 'Ozymandias' poem ?

Answer 1

With a name like "Deliverance Lost," poetic allusions are very much to be expected.

In this particular case, the poem that Corvax finds is the other 1818 poem titled "Ozymandias," written by Shelley's friend Horace Smith.

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:—
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,—
Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.

We wonder,—and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

The poems were inspired by the same statue and published a few weeks apart. As Wikipedia explains: "It takes the same subject, tells the same story, and makes a similar moral point...." Smith's poem is less famous but still a fine piece of work. (Personally, I think the two sonnets are of similar merit, but most people seemingly prefer Shelley's.) This was also not the only time that the two friends tried picking a single subject and each writing a verse about it.

Answer 2

Yes, the rebel android intends to destroy all organic life and quotes Shelley"s Ozymandyas. the Android has stored and extended all human knowledge does not need mankind anymore it can repair itself forever