Sometimes it is difficult to reply when someone asks you what your favourite poem is. Every poem is unique, every poem has different objects, voices, messages, allusions, cadences and characters. So today, as I woke up, I felt compelled to share one of my favourite poems. Which poems do you class as one of your favourites? Comments below.
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.”
Ozymandias, by Percy B Shelley
Haunting, depressing, aggressive, defiant and empty, all at the same time. These are the five words I would use to describe this poem. After reading it, which five words would you choose to describe this poem? I look forward to your answers…
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