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| title    = Ozymandias
 
| title    = Ozymandias
 
| image    = ozymandias.png
 
| image    = ozymandias.png
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| titletext = And on the pedestal these words appear: "And on the pedestal these words appear: "And on the pedestal these words appear: "And...
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| titletext = And on the pedestal these words appear: "And on the pedestal these words appear: "And on the pedestal these words appear: "And ...
 
}}
 
}}
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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[[Ponytail]] is reciting the opening of "{{w|Ozymandias}}" by {{w|Percy Bysshe Shelley}} (see [[#Ozymandias text|text]] below).  
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{{incomplete|Please expound upon this explanation.}}
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Ponytail is reciting the opening of "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias Ozymandias]" By Percy Byssche Shelly. However, instead of continuing on with the poem, Ponytail is going through a recursion where the information is always being quoted from "a traveler from an antique land" who recounts what they were told by a similar traveler from another antique land. The title text once again plays with recursion, but instead of it being a string of travelers talking about travelers, it is a string of pedestals that are quoting pedestals.
  
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The poem Ozymandias is about the last vestiges of a {{w|Ancient Egypt|once-great civilization}} that has since been lost to history. The poem is based on nested quotations: the poet, speaking to the reader, quotes a "traveler", who ultimately quotes words carved in the pedestal of a crumbling statue. When people recite the poem, they add yet another level of nesting, as the reader is quoting the poet, who's quoting the traveler, who's quoting the pedestal.  
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The fact that Ponytail is now telling Cueball the story of this recursion implies that she is yet another layer of this recursion and is herself "a traveler from an antique land."
  
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When Ponytail recites this poem, rather than reciting it normally, she adds more layers of recursive nesting, suggesting that she heard the story from a traveler, who heard it from another traveler, who heard it from another traveler. It's not clear how many layers of nesting this goes through before the rest of the text is cited (or whether the recursion is infinite).  
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With the original publication of this comic, the quotes were not nested properly, all matching with double quotes instead of alternating as is the convention.
  
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The title similarly plays with recursion, quoting a pedestal which quotes a string of other pedestals.
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The epic poem "Oztmandias" is mentioned on pages 169 and 170 of the book ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mjThBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=Ozymandias+recursion&source=bl&ots=atqSnLbGZP&sig=cXeyE-vAQm9UzBh2k7O0ooHrQr0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAGoVChMI8_echsL_xgIVSZiACh009gnS#v=onepage&q=Ozymandias%20recursion&f=false Recursive Desire: Rereading Epic Tradition]'' by Jeremy M. Downes.
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The subject of recursion has been covered in other comics: [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Recursion Category:Recursion]
  
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The quotes are not nested properly, as they never end. So there is only the starting quotation mark (") for each quote. If she ever finishes there would be one closing quotation mark for each quote in the recursion at the end of her sentence. See [[859: (]].
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==Ozymandias Text==
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I met a traveller from an antique land<br />
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A similar joke was used in [[785: Open Mic Night]]
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Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone<br />
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Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,<br />
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===Ozymandias text===
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Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,<br />
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:I met a traveller from an antique land<br />
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And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,<br />
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:Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone<br />
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Tell that its sculptor well those passions read<br />
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:Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,<br />
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Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,<br />
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:Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,<br />
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The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:<br />
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:And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,<br />
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And on the pedestal these words appear:<br />
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:Tell that its sculptor well those passions read<br />
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'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:<br />
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:Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,<br />
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Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'<br />
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:The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:<br />
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Nothing beside remains. Round the decay<br />
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:And on the pedestal these words appear:<br />
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Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare<br />
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:'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:<br />
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The lone and level sands stretch far away."<ref name="Shelley1826">Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias" in ''[https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MZY9AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA100 Miscellaneous and Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley]'' (London: W. Benbow, 1826), 100.</ref><br />
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:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'<br />
 
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:Nothing beside remains. Round the decay<br />
 
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:Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare<br />
 
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:The lone and level sands stretch far away."<ref name="Shelley1826">Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias" in ''[https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MZY9AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA100 Miscellaneous and Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley]'' (London: W. Benbow, 1826), 100.</ref><br />
 
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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:[Ponytail, with her arms stretched out, is addressing Cueball.]
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:[Ponytail is addressing Cueball.]
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:Ponytail:
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:Ponytail: I met a traveler from an antique land who said: "I met a traveler from an antique land, who said "I met a traveler from an antique land, who said "I met ...
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:I met a traveler from an antique land
 
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:who said: "I met a traveler from an an-
 
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:tique land, who said "I met a traveler from
 
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:an antique land, who said "I met...
 
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
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[[Category:Recursion]]
 
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[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
 
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 

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