I met a traveller 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 shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd 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.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, December 1817.
I came across this in one of Tomas' nursery rhyme books. Sonnets before the age of two, what a kid!
Is it a Shakespearean sonnet consisting of 3 quartrains and a rhyming couplet, or a classic Italian sonnet comprised of an octave and a sestet? I will let you figure than one out. Irrespective of the structure I like the content and the images it evokes. I can see why it was placed in a children's book.
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Percy Bysshe Shelley
2 comments:
Here's the thing: I learned that piece in school a million years ago yet it still strikes a chord. I read lotsatuff now which seems to hit the spot (poetry) but never remains there. Seems the impressionable canvas of youth stays vivid no matter how many times you paint over it.
And another thing: that is a great poem?!!!
I did not learn this at school but di learn 'Death the Leveller', which is firmly embossed in my mind.
They form a nice pair given the subject matter and yet are quite stylistically contrasting.
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