Welcome to the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series of found text readings.
The first time I realized the fear of being forgotten was in high school. What sparked it? The poem Ozymandias (Percy Shelley's version). I was so taken aback by the thought of being meaningless, by the realization that I would be forgotten, that the pang of sadness from that day has been with me for over 30 years.
And why did I decide to get an English degree, if words were so cruel?
Why, indeed...
Percy Shelley's 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 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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Attribution:
The transition music is taken from the work Funky Vibes, by Kabbalistic Village.
kabbalisticvillage.com/
I am thankful he shared music I could use for my transitions.