![]() Wow! And that doesn't even address the subject matter. There is not one useless or superfluous word. Then he takes it all and tosses it into the wind with boundless and bare, and lone and level. Then he starts reeling the poem in with Round the decay, and the hard d sounds to make everything concrete in our minds, as does the word wreck. The phrase stamped on these lifeless things, is so beautiful, it gives one goosies, as does Nothing beside remains, which is such beautiful use of language it ranks up there with And no birds sing. I misquoted etched in place of stamped, which is just silly. Then I really botched line seven, saying first: That still exist, which is just pedestrian, and which yet endure, which is also not as powerful as what Shelley wrote, since it doesn't keep the beautiful, hissing, desert-wind s sound alive. I then recited, lies a shattered visage, which of course is much less powerful than writing, a shattered visage lies, which builds suspense because you have the impact of the shattered visage first, and only then do you find out what it's doing, (or not, as the case may be). How shocking and raw to write trunkless here. Later I made the mistake of reciting, the vast and lifeless legs of stone. But to so antique land.oh, how sublime that word choice. For instance, if he had started the poem: I met a traveler from an ancient land, or even worse, far away land, how generic the intro would be. It took me a day, and all the time I was getting it wrong and substituting words that were close, but much worse than what he wrote. You really don't fully understand what a towering masterpiece this is, until you try to memorize its deceptively simple 14 lines. ![]() It goes from statue, to a story told to a traveler and then to Shelley's poem living on long after the desert turns the statue to dust. Though time breaks down, decays, and changes the meaning of the statue, it survives. Yet, though changing art is still imortal. Now many years later this statue has a completely different meaning that the artist did not intend or even contemplate. When the sculptor made this statue he was attempting to create a statue that evoked fear, awe and wonder. Unlike Shelley's friend Keats who sees art as an unchanging cold pastoral (see Ode to a Grecian Urn), Shelley sees art and it's meaning as something that changes even after it leaves the artists hand. I think this poem is about the sculptor that made the stutue and the mutability of art. I don't think this poem is about Ozymandias at all. ![]() I like this poem but I think I like The Raven better. It is said to have been destroyed in an earthquake in the third century BCE.I also came here because of Breaking Bad. ![]() Colossal The word colossal (“vast in size, amount, extent, or scope gigantic, huge” - OED) comes from the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a huge bronze statue of the sun god near the harbor in Rhodes. In Judaism king of kings was sometimes used to refer to God in Christianity, Jesus is several times identified as “king of kings and lord of lords.” Look on my works The copy-text for this edition, the first magazine publication of Shelley's poem, has confusing punctuation: an open quotation in line 2, then another open quotation before “My name,” with a single closing quotation mark after “King of Kings.” Most editors either put the next line - “Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!” - inside the quotations, or remove quotation marks from this section of the poem altogether. King of Kings King of kings was a title used by many rulers in the ancient Middle East. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.” When Shelley was writing the poem, the British Museum had just acquired part of a statue of Rameses. The actual Rameses apparently had a statue in Egypt with a similar inscription: “King of Kings am I, Osymandias. Shelley wrote the poem in a friendly sonnet competition with the poet Horace Smith. Ozymandias The Greek name for Rameses II of Egypt. Ozymandias was the Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II. Notes antique Pronounced with the accent on the first syllable.
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