Ozymandias

“But even statues crumble if they're made to wait”

Uncle Jerry connects Taylor's line about crumbling statues to Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem 'Ozymandias,' about a great Eastern king who erected a massive statue with the inscription 'Look on these works, ye mighty and despair', but nothing remains except the fallen head and pedestal. The inscription becomes ironic because there are no works left. Uncle Jerry wonders if Taylor is thinking of Ozymandias when she writes that even statues crumble if made to wait, noting the shared theme that even permanent-seeming things deteriorate over time.