Saturday 7 May 2011

Ozymandias

 Ozymandias
 by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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 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.

3 comments:

  1. Nice post! I'm enjoying exploring your blog. I like the variety of topics and your viewpoint. I came across your blog while looking for an illustration to go with Ozymandias, in connection with a post I'm writing about a Chris Hedges talk which references the poem. Did you design the illustration here, and may I borrow it (crediting you, of course) in my post?

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  2. Oh hello there! My first comment ever!! :D

    Well to be honest, I'm now embarrassed as I have taken this picture off the net myself, and I can't say I asked permission for it. :(

    I'll try and retrace my steps and see if I can find where I got it from and ask proper permission like you have.

    Thanks for visiting! :)

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  3. Oh, don't worry about it - everyone does that. I try to remember to ask but I have things on my blog that I've forgotten where I got them too. Probably the site you got it from didn't design it either :) As long as we don't commercialize someone else's work, it's okay, I think. People who feel strongly about ownership usually put copyright notices all over an image... that's my understanding anyway. I like the Creative Commons movement a lot as it addresses sharing and mashup culture in a way that respects both creator and user/creator/borrower. You do have an interesting blog here.

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