Ozymandias by Percy Shelley

The poem in this post is Ozymandias by Percy Shelley. It was written in 1817.

This is a poem that appears to be about and ancient Egyptian pharaoh, but is actually a criticism of those in power in his own time (19th Century).

There is a great video about Shelley's life here: Percy Shelley

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.

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Now you can watch my short video about the poem here:Ozymandias

As Imperceptibly As Grief by Emily Dickinson

For me, this has been the most challenging poem in the anthology. Not only have I had to think carefully about how to teach it, but I've had many different thoughts about the meaning.

I think it is a poem that is difficult to assign one meaning to and looking at other people's thoughts on the poem seems to confirm this idea.

However, there are two clear ideas in the poem.

1. Time passes and you don't always notice it.
2. Grief/ sadness gets easier to deal with and eventually ends.

There is an excellent look at her life and poems: Emily Dickinson's Life and Poems

As Imperceptibly as Grief

As imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away -
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy -
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon -
The Dusk drew earlier in -
The Morning foreign shone - 
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest who would be gone -
And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.

By Emily Dickinson

Now look at my brief video revising the poem: As Imperceptibly As Grief