This Is Just to Slay

I have taken
the sword
that was in
the stone

and which
you were probably
saving
for a king

Forgive me
it was shiny
so sharp
and so mine

Ozymandias, the Great

Ozymandias was another name for Ramesses the Great, Pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt. The 2008 edition of the travel guide Lonely Planet's guide to Egypt says that the poem was inspired by the fallen statue of Ramesses II at the Ramesseum, a memorial temple built by Ramesses at Thebes, near Luxor in Upper Egypt. King Ramses left monuments throughout Egypt, like Ozymandias left monuments throughout Ozymandias’s kingdom. Once Ozymandias was a great king now only remembered by a broken statue in the desert. However, Ramses remains today perhaps the most famous of Egyptian pharaohs. In addition, many of the monuments erected during his rule still stand.



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

This states Ramses II wanted to leave a set as a reminder of his great strength and wealth. Under him Egypt acquired unprecedented grandness. This is how he dominated for 67 years: Following the imperial efforts started a century earlier, Ramesses II sought to emulate and surpass the success of the reigns of Thutmose III and Amenhotep III Ramses like his father Seti I, had red hair and therefore was associated with the god Set (a god of chaos, confusion, storms, wind, the desert and foreign lands.) Set had been scorned by most Egyptians throughout their history. However, Ramses II was quiet proud to be a man of Set and made a point to uplift his name. War and expanding borders were a big part of Ramses’ rule and Set was the perfect god to have on his side.

Ramesses, of all the ancient rulers, left what is perhaps the most indelible mark on the country. His legacy can be seen most clearly in the archaeological record – in the many buildings that Ramesses modified, usurped, or constructed from the ground up. His building achievements stand pre-eminent amongst the pharaohs of Egypt. On the west bank at Thebes he constructed a giant mortuary temple known as the Ramesseum.


"Nothing beside remains: Round the decay/ Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/ The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Yet, The might and majesty of a king do not last A variety of health problems (such as arthritis and arterial issues) may have contributed to the end of the life of Ramses II. Ramses II was buried in the Valley of Kings, but had to be replaced because of looting.The condition of KV7 (Valley of the Kings: Tomb of Ramesses II) is poor, immense damage having been wrought by the seven or more distinct 'flooding events' to which the tomb has been subjected over the centuries and by moisture-induced swelling of the underlying shale. The site Ramesses II chose for his tomb was not a good one. After years or being looted and weathered, it remains destroyed.

Frustration. Aggravation. Dehumanization.

In the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, rhetorical questions are used to express the frustrations African Americans encountered while trying to be accepted by society. The first question sets up the poem, asking what happens when you cannot reach your dreams. All of the questions that follow attempt to answer the main question.

The first question asks if an unexpressed dream will dry up like a raisin. A raisin is already dried, and leaving it to dry in the sun will decrease any nutritional value it once had, suggesting the raisin has been forgotten and anyone who may have wanted to eat it has moved on. This represents the first possible answer to the main question of the poem: the dream is just forgotten, and the dreamer moves on in life. The second question asks if the dream is like an infected sore, eating you from the inside, suggesting the dreams inside being devoured by hopelessness, causing pain to the one who cannot express them. The third question asks if it stinks like rotting meat, which is an intense smell that never really goes away, and stays in the air driving the person smelling the meat insane. This is another suggested answer to the question of a “dream deferred.” It will hang there, tempting the dreamer, driving him insane because he will never be able to obtain it. The fourth question talks about a crusted over sweet, which depicts a hardened layer, making the sweet worthless and impossible to eat. This proposes the idea that the dreamer has failed in life and becomes depressed. His dreams are stuck so deep inside him that he has become nothing more than a shell, or a crusted and sugared over outer layer, of what was once a man. Each question gets progressively more intense, starting at the dream being forgotten, continuing all the way down to the dehumanization of the dreamer. With each question, Hughes builds frustration, showing that people are made of dreams and need to be able to express these dreams or else they will never truly be allowed to live.

All of these frustrations lead to the final question: “Or does it explode?” This question is the most intense and direct explanation for the main question. The difference between this question and the ones before it is that the first four questions were all similes, suggesting that something “like” the terrible things would happen, whereas the final question is a metaphor, presenting a stronger analogy because the dream is not “like” an explosion, but actually IS an explosion. This makes the feeling aggravation seem real and uncontainable. Everyone understands how destructive explosions are, and Hughes uses this common knowledge to express how drastic life will be if African Americans are not allowed to express their dreams. If the dream does explode, the dreamer will do something just as drastic as an explosion, perhaps committing suicide (which was probably not seen as an “explosion” to the white community, but surly was to the African American community) or fighting against the law by doing something drastic, such as murdering those who tried to oppress them.

Hughes is able to express the frustrations of the African American community during this time period by cleverly using similes, a metaphor, and rhetorical questions to discuses all the negative consequences associated with postponing a dream. From this poem, it is easy to tell that African Americans needed to express themselves through their dreams to be accepted into society, and to accept themselves.

From Numbers to Death, in the Metro

*

In Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” the speaker steps off a train and suddenly has a new, positive reception of the people around him. He sees beautiful people dying, and Pound uses a metaphor to relate the station to nature.

The images of the first line of “In a Station of the Metro” are common. It is easy to picture a crowded place full of many faces. Usually, when you stand in the middle of a crowded place while people hurry around you, you only see blurs passing by, not distinct people with individual lives. I think the speaker in Pound’s poem stepped off the train and paused for just a moment. In that moment he seems to have realized everyone in that station is eventually going to die. In the music video, “Savin’ Me” by Nickelback**, one man’s appreciation of life changes when he is able to see every “face” in the crowd and how much longer they will live. Numbers appear over each person’s head representing the time they have left in the world. In “In a Station of the Metro,” I feel as though the speaker is experiencing a similar phenomenon to the man in Nickelback’s video. While numbers may not be appearing above everyone’s head, there is that realization the death is unavoidable and in that moment the speaker appreciates the beauty in every person around him.

The strongest way Pound conveys this image is with his clever use of the word “apparition,” which can mean to appear or can be used to refer to a ghost. Pound uses the first definition to explain that people are appearing in his eyes. While there have always been people in the train station, the speaker has never seen them as having purpose but he does at this time. Pound also uses the second meaning, which illustrates that everyone in the station is disappearing and fading into ghosts. The speaker is hit with reality when he realizes the people around him are important individuals, constantly inching towards death with every second they live. This meaning of “apparition” also creates an image of ghostly-white against the dark train station, symbolizing the purity and integrity each person has within them, regardless of outward, darkened appearances. Because the speaker sees this good in each person, he feels saddened that death will eventually claim them all.

The image of the second line is a metaphoric representation of the speaker’s experience in the train station. Literally, this line depicts flower petals stuck to a wet, dead tree, which is an uncommon sight to the average person. Because this sight is so rare, it emphasizes how exceptional the speaker is for being able to see the people as beautiful, unique individuals. Each petal, no longer attached to the stem, represents a person who is approaching death at every moment. The petals are brightly colored, portraying the beauty within each person, and set against a blackened tree which represents both the dark train station and eternal darkness of death. As the tree begins to dry, the petals will start to fall from the tree, one by one, as the people in the station succumb to the darkness. The speaker seems to have an emotional connection to the strangers around him because he has a new understanding of how short life truly is.

*Picture from Nickleback's music video "Savin' Me"
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JQiEs32SqQ

Thesis: "Whatif" by Shel Silverstein

In Shel Silverstein's poem "Whatif," Silverstein is able to express the fears many children experience in their young lives by creating a speaker who is an apprehensive child questioning the endless negative possibilities in the world.

'Till Death Does its Part...

Shakespeare sees the death of his friend as a fast approaching truth he must accept. While he cares for his friend, he admits that death cannot be stopped. In Sonnet 73, death is represented by the passage of time. In the first quatrain, Shakespeare uses images of late fall or early winter, such as when he mentions “where late the sweet birds sang.” In the second quatrain, Shakespeare uses imagery to depict day turning into night. The uses of these images evoke feelings of cold and depression, which parallel the feelings one often experiences before the occurrence of a death. The first quatrain is a changing season, while the second is a changing day. This gives the feeling that time is getting shorter, but for both changes, the sun will shine bright again at a later time. The final quatrain is about a fire which is being put out by its own ashes. Fire only burns for a short amount of time, intensifying the fact that death is approaching fast. Unlike a changing season, or an ending day, once a fire is gone, it will not rise again. This last quatrain finalizes the death of his friend, making it more real than before. In Shakespeare’s heroic couplet, he notes that his friend “must leave ere long,” accepting that his friend must die, and becomes more concerned about his own well being after the friend leaves him behind.

Unlike Shakespeare, Thomas did not see the death of his father as something he had to accept, but as an obstacle his father should fight against. In “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night,” Thomas pleads with his father to “rage” against death and to not give up so easily. His method of persuasion consists of telling his father about the “wise,” “good,” “wild,” and “grave” men, all of whom have reasons to fight against death. This, Thomas hopes, will convince his father to be like these men and fight until his last moment. This poem is written in the Villanelle form, which strengthens Thomas’s plea to fight against death. Despite the fact the Thomas is facing an emotionally hard time because the father he idolizes is dying, he forces himself to follow the strict form. Following the strict form shows that even in the toughest of times people are able to force themselves to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. As Thomas forced himself to write a Villanelle, he hoped his father would fight to live.

The Magical Test Post

This is my magical test post! It is magical, becuase I told it to be.