OZYMANDIAS/OGDENIASIS

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY(1792-1822

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.

There’s a golden thread (to paraphrase Horace Rumpole) that permeates the warp of human history, including Aristophanes, Robert Burton, Miguel Cervantes, Moliere, Samuel Butler, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dodgson, Edward Lear, Bennet Cerf, Ogden Nash, and Dave Barry, to mention but a few…  This thread represents perhaps the ultimate attainment of intellectual silliness;  and at the same time, arguably, of course, the height of wisdom…

OGDEN NASH (1902-1971)

I met a traveler from an antique show,

His pockets empty, but his eyes aglow.

Upon his back, and now his very own,

He bore two vast and trunkless legs of stone.

Amid the torrent of collector’s jargon

I gathered he had found himself a bargain,

A permanent conversation piece post-prandial,

Certified genuine early Ozymandial

And when i asked him how he could be sure,

He showed me P. B. Shelley’s signature.

 

SO, WHICH VERSION DO YOU LIKE BETTER??