Ozymandias, Egyptian Tombs & the Song of the Harpist

Ozymandias, Egyptian Tombs & the Song of the Harpist

Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias uses the Greek name for Ramesses II, the most famous of Egyptian pharaohs, and was written as a great statute of him was in transit to the British Museum in a wave of awe and Orientalism sweeping Europe.  The poem captures both the power...
The Joy of Mud

The Joy of Mud

When I was young, there was a bare patch under some tall and shady basswood trees (I called them ‘lollipop trees’, as that is what they looked like) where regular grass just didn’t want to grow.  So, I started to play mud games with the hose.  While my brothers were...