OZYMANDIAS

OZYMANDIAS

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.

sonnet By Percy Bysshe Shelley published in 1818


The central theme of "Ozymandias" is the inevitable decline of all men, and of the empires they build, however mighty in their own time.

The sonnet celebrates the anonymous sculptor and his artistic achievement, whilst Shelley imaginatively surveys the ruins of a bygone power to fashion a sinuous, compact sonnet spun from a traveller's tale of far distant desert ruins. The lone and level sands stretching to the horizon perhaps suggest a resultant barrenness from a misuse of power where "nothing beside remains".

Percy Shelley apparently wrote this sonnet in competition with his friend Horace Smith, as Smith published a sonnet a month after Shelley's in the same magazine. It takes the same subject, tells the same story, and makes the same moral point. It was originally published under the same title as Shelley's verse; but in later collections Smith retitled it "On A Stupendous Leg of Granite, Discovered Standing by Itself in the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted Below".

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; "this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." The City's gone,
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

—Horace Smith.

I like this pome mainly for this quote:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

When I first read these lines, it made me think for a while. I wondered how big his kingdom would be to decare such a thing. However, all that has left now are parts of his statue...

How great a Kingdom maybe, one day, it can fall apart.
How great a man would be, one day, nothing may be left of him.

Who are the ones to be watched out?

Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.

Jack Sparrow

From: Pirates of the Carribean: The Curs of the Black Pearl.

The one that is bleating?

"You need to understand something," she said.

"When the big old wolf sank his teeth in the lam, it's the lamb that does all the bleating."


From: A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones

The Wolf and the Lamb

WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf’s right to eat him.

He thus addressed him:
“ Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.”
“Indeed,” bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, “I was not then born.”

Then said the Wolf,
“You feed in my pasture.” “No, good sir,” replied the Lamb, “I have not yet tasted grass.”

Again said the Wolf, “ You drink of my well.” “No,” exclaimed the Lamb, “I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother’s milk is both food and drink to me.”

Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, “ Well! I won’t remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations.”

The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.

Life Lessons

You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night,when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for thebus:

1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only beone passenger in your car?

Think before you continue reading.This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of ajob application.

You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, andthus, you should save her first. Or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life and this would be the perfect chance to pay himback.However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming upwith his answer. He simply answered:

"I would give the car keys to my oldfriend and let him take the lady to thehospital. I would stay behind, and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams."

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one:

"What is the first name of the woman who cleans theschool?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall,dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know hername?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor.

"In your careers,you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned hername was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson -

Pick up in the RainOne night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s.

The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance andput her into a taxi cab.She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him.

Seven days went by and aknock came on the man's door.
To his surprise, agiant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached..

It read:

"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highwaythe other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away... God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely,Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop andsat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water infront of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.
"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket andstudied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and thewaitress was growing impatient.

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill onthe table and walked away. The boy finished the icecream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitresscame back, she began to cry as she wiped down thetable. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,was one quarter, two dimes and five pennies.You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on aroadway.
Then he hid himself and watched to see ifanyone would remove the huge rock. Some of theking's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came byand simply walked around it.
Many loudly blamed theKing for not keeping the roads clear, but none didanything about getting the stone out of the way.Then a peasant came along carrying a load ofvegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, thepeasant laid down his burden and tried to move thestone to the side of the road. After much pushingand straining, he finally succeeded. After thepeasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticeda purse lying in the road where the boulder hadbeen. The purse contained many gold coins and a notefrom the King indicating that the gold was for theperson who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improveour condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at ahospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease.
Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who hadmiraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.
I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking adeep breath and saying,

"Yes I'll do it if it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did,seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.He looked up at the doctor and asked with atrembling voice,

"Will I start to die right away".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Now you have 2 choices.1. Ignore this post, or 2. Repost it so other people can read it.
I hope that you will choose No. 2 and remember.

Most importantly.................
"Work like you don't need the money, sing like no one is listening, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like you do when nobody's watching.

"NOW more than ever - Please...Send It Forward...hug three people you love and ask them to Send it foward as well."

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away"

"The risk takers might not live long, but the cautious never live atall"