Oddbean new post about login | logout "The B-Side of 'Ozymandias'" Did you know that when Percy Bysse Shelley wrote "Ozymandias", he did so in a friendly competition with his pal Horace Smith ... ... who also wrote his own version of the same poem, making the same point? Except here's the thing: I think Smith's "Ozymandias" might be even *better* Part of it, anyway My essay: https://clivethompson.medium.com/the-b-side-of-ozymandias-6651dee01c08 A free "friend" link in case you're not a Medium subscriber: https://clivethompson.medium.com/the-b-side-of-ozymandias-6651dee01c08?sk=7f78cb459f021e43a9dae4a16e017194
@59034767 Sorry to remind you about ancient Rome, but Smith's poem recalls the Old English poem about Roman ruins: Wondrous is this foundation – the fates have broken and shattered this city; the work of giants crumbles. The roofs are ruined, the towers toppled, frost in the mortar has broken the gate, torn and worn and shorn by the storm, eaten through with age. The earth’s grasp holds the builders, rotten, forgotten, the hard grip of the ground, until a hundred generations of men are gone.
@59034767 To the article: I think Smith is nowhere near Shelley’s level as a poet, but as you point out he did a better job of forcing the audience to draw the obvious parallel between Ramses and their present privileged position. Even though Shelley leaves that part unsaid, it seams reasonable that he expected his audience to be able to make that inference on their own.
@59034767 Fascinating. I think I still prefer Shelly’s version, but this new (to me) version definitely has something to it.