![\"\"](\"http:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Percy.jpg\" "\\"Percy\\"")
<\/a>The Rock Star of The Romantics?<\/p><\/div>\n
Well, the name itself comes from a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It is a meditation on the temporal nature of all things and it’s signature couplet is,<\/p>\n
‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:<\/span><\/em> Why despair? This is one of the great examples of irony at work. The words are chiseled on the pedastal of a statue, immense and in ruins, abandoned in a vast desert.<\/p>\n So, class, here the mighty Ozymandias is saying, ‘no matter who you are, how much you acquire, how many lands you conquer, it will never match my\u00a0achievements.’<\/p>\n The irony, of course, is that time has reduced this once mighty ruler to a broken statue, a shattered remanent, a few pieces of sandstone in a sea of sand. There are no works to look on, nothing mighty left.<\/p>\n Here is the Sonnet in full. For those of you English Literature nerds, it falls into the category of ‘Undefineable’ but may be considered Italian because the turn (volta), the change of rhyme scheme and the\u00a0revelation\u00a0of the overall metaphor occurs on the 9th line.<\/p>\n I met a traveller from an antique land<\/span> Okay, now to counter this cheery start to your Tuesday morning, I will share the reason for my meditating on Mr. O. I heard a BBC commentator talking about his extreme dislike of the trend in coffee places to ask for your name to put on the cup.<\/p>\n Most people give their name without thinking.\u00a0Some chose to have a little fun giving names like Darth Vader, Abraham Lincoln and Henry VIII. He was standing behind a man who, when asked for his name, replied in plummy tones, “Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty and despair.” Hard to fit it all on anything smaller than a Vente, I imagine but worth it to hear the barista call it out…<\/p>\n There are a lot of phrases we know but are unaware of their origins. Anyone who read the Watchmen graphic novel series or saw the movie is aware of a character whose hero identity is Ozymandias. A definite Trivial pursuit … Continue reading
\nLook on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>It is believed Shelley was inspired by a statue of the\u00a0pharaoh\u00a0Ramesses II acquired by the British Museum. Ramesses deux was a hell of a statue builder. When it comes to rulers who love to build monuments to their own divinity, he definitely set the bar high.<\/p>\n
\nWho said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone<\/span>
\nStand in the desert. Near them on the sand,<\/span>
\nHalf sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown<\/span>
\nAnd wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command<\/span>
\nTell that its sculptor well those passions read<\/span>
\nWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,<\/span>
\nThe hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.<\/span>
\nAnd on the pedestal these words appear:<\/span>
\n`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:<\/span>
\nLook on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’<\/span>
\nNothing beside remains. Round the decay<\/span>
\nOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,<\/span>
\nThe lone and level sands stretch far away”.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"