Whose hand and heart? The sculptor?

Forums: Grammar, Learning English, Efl, Ozymandias
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Context:

Context:

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".

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Type: Question • Score: 4 • Views: 2,898 • Replies: 17

That's a good one.

It can be taken either way, the sculptor or Ozymandias.
It's not clear, and you'll find argument for either side.

My own long held interpretation was that the sculptor was intimately aware of the cruelty of this king.

I love this poem, it always puts things in perspective for me.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

THis is a famous poem by Percy Shelley and to parse it like some chunks of prosciutto for an ESL lesson is a shame. I suggest that you get a copy of "How Does a Poem Mean?" and read some of the analyses of what the entire work and its parts are trying to convey.

It was not about any Chinese monarch but the work done to create the 8000 terra cotta soliers draw a nice parallel to what SHelley was saying about vanity of power that can be seen by those who've actually produced the likenesses born of vainglory.

2 Replies

@farmerman,

Ozymandias is my all time favorite poem.

0 Replies

@farmerman,

Quote:

THis is a famous poem by Percy Shelley and to parse it like some chunks of prosciutto for an ESL lesson is a shame. I suggest that you get a copy of "How Does a Poem Mean?" and read some of the analyses of what the entire work and its parts are trying to convey.

This is claptrap, Farmer, meretricious, hypocritical claptrap. You suggest that it's not valuable to try to understand it for English language learners and then you turn around and say it's fine to get a book to explain exactly that.

Why not just admit you don't know? An expert on language you are not.

I suggest that you check the title of the copy you've suggested.

0 Replies

Has anyone noticed that JTT appears to go out of his way to provoke
the abhorrence & loathing of all with whom he comes into contact ?

Maybe he thrives on scorn, contempt & revulsion ?

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

That's not true, Dave. I have only pointed out the stupidity and hypocrisy of this particular comment from Farmerman.

1 Reply

@JTT,

I 'm thinking of putting u back on Ignore
because u call for such a waste of attention to mindless noise
not just toward me, but everyone.

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

Awwww, don't do that, Dave. You'll have nobody to give you a reality check.

Lord knows you're constantly in need of those.

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

Ive had that dweeb on igoree for quite a while . He (she) has only one song to sing and is only interested in being the center of conversation. He (she's) ot worth a pinch of ****.

BAck to Ozymandias.

2 Replies

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

That's a good one.

It can be taken either way, the sculptor or Ozymandias.
It's not clear, and you'll find argument for either side.

My own long held interpretation was that the sculptor was intimately aware of the cruelty of this king.

I love this poem, it always puts things in perspective for me.

I agree with you about the phrase "the heart that fed." It could refer to either. "The hand that mocked them," I think refers to the scultor. This is "mock" as in impersonate, like "mock turtle soup." As opposed to using mock to ridicule.

0 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

Ive had that dweeb on igoree for quite a while.

I also had him on Ignore; probably longer than a year,
not out of malice, but from tedium.
I think that he 's in a conspicuously poor state of mental health.

farmerman wrote:

He (she) has only one song to sing and is only interested
in being the center of conversation. He (she's) ot worth a pinch of ****.

BAck to Ozymandias.

I feel a little sorry for him, tho;
like he 's the dirty dog, rejected by all.
He seems to have a very low opinion of himself.

I wonder whether he is using us to afflict
himself n torment himself. Have we become the instruments of masochism ?

0 Replies

@farmerman,

Notice, Dave, how the grand academic addresses the actual issue. Both of you are off thread.

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Both of you are off thread.

this is not a line you can reasonably take with anyone.

I do, however, take note of your position.

1 Reply

ok look, if ya'll are going to ignore someone, ignore them.

Can we get back to the poem?

farmerman, it's my favorite too.
Although I'll admit, I'm not a big poetry lover, and my list isn't long.

I simply love the way it puts us all in our place, literally.

I had this poem on my cork board where I worked, and whenever someone would read it, I'd watch their face, covertly.

Each time, there would be this look of "huh?' which I found amusing, and made me sad at the same time.

1 Reply

@chai2,

Quote:

simply love the way it puts us all in our place, literally.

We need to load these into mailboxes and send em to these"masters of the Universe" douche bags and over egoed sports figures .

0 Replies

May I offer another one, for consideration ?
In another century, I went to court in the City Hall of Yonkers, NY,
upon one of whose walls, my eyes fell on this:

"The body of
B. Franklin, Printer
(Like the Cover of an Old Book
Its Contents torn Out
And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding)
Lies Here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be Lost;
For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More
In a New and More Elegant Edition
Revised and Corrected
By the Author."

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

Quote:

this is not a line you can reasonably take with anyone.

Simple sarcasm, Beth, to show what hypocrites they are. Everyone goes off topic, including you.

0 Replies

Whose hand and heart? The sculptor?

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