I mentioned I was doing an on-line course on archaeology and the first assignment is due… we have a choice of three but I’m stumped as to which I choose. I’m drawn to the one which asks for a reaction to an artistic response to archaeology, for example a poem, a film, a novel etc… My mind immediately leapt to Ozymandias by Shelley, but is that a poem about archaeology? It’s subject is an ancient artefact and my response to seeing the broken statue lying in the lone and level sands we would immediately want to know who it was, what it was, what was its context, was there anything more beneath the desert… well I would but would Shelley?
I could describe and respond to what I’ve chosen, I could explain why I’ve chosen it, I could critique it… but could I explain whether it conveys an accurate impression of archaeology? Could I say whether it is significant, either artistically or archaeologically – well, yes I could do that? Do you like it – yes I do! Would you recommend it to others – yes I would – , and if so, who – who? Well whoever I chose…. not sure I quite get the drift of this last little question tagged on the end.
OzymandiasI 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 awayPercy Bysshe Shelley
PS My featured image is of shells… shelly… get it?
Lois Elsden 