âWe did two takes of the song, and itâs performed in front of a pretty big crowd,â Demme remembered. âAnd by that point, Meryl wasnât even looking at the strings, she was just playing.
âOzymandiasâ is at first glance a sonnet about the transitory nature of life and its pretensions of fame and fortune. The decaying, ancient statue bears witness to the fact that the pursuit of power and glory for their own sakes are not only fleeting, but they are also illusory, unworthy ambitions even within the lifetime of their seekers.
Yeats's poem also reflects on the more rugged emotional landscape the film exposes. In Lake Isle, as in Million Dollar Baby, the dream of escape finally slams against the hard facts of real life. The dream can survive, as Yeats puts it, only in the deep heart's core.. In the movie, the dream is mined by Mr. Eastwood's character when he labors to translate the poem from the Gaelic for Maggie.