m-a-c: The Muses: Pome:   Ozymandius


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  Before I begin, I must relate to you a neat little
  story.  One of my recent friends (who is an accomplished
  musician) had never heard of Shelly (thus has he been
  removed from the curiculuum these days).

  I was determined to find my copy of Ozy and looked high
  and low, all without success.  Then I thought that there
  "was" that box of "valuable" stuff that I had not-yet
  un-packed.  I opened it up, and there on the VERY
  top was:  Shelly!


  Well, without further diatribe from me, I present from the
  Signet Classics series:


                           OZYMANDIAS


     I met a traveler from an antique land
     Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
     Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
     Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
     And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

     Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
     Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
     The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
     And on the pedestal these words appear:

       "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
        Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

     Nothing beside remains, Round the decay
     Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
     The lone and level sands stretch far away.


Notes (for literary types)
And as the editor of the Signet version says the word 
"mocked" partly means "imitated" here. The edition also 
includes many other "must read" works by 
Shelly: Promethius Unbound, Ode to the West Wind and a 
particular favorite of mine (!) "The Mask of Anarchy". 



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