Ozymandias paper introduction.
Rough introduction I am working with for a poetry analysis in my literature class. Thoughts are appreciated. I am trying something a little different here. Not going so structured and rigid as I do with most of my academic papers. I still have the thesis at the end, but the text prior to the paragraph should be a little more jazzed up than a lot of my other stuff.
A lone statue stands in the desert, a sign of a ruler from ages prior. It is worn down to just the legs and the head. Separated from each other, the head lies in the sand with a sneer of “cold command”. A traveler describes this sight, and the words of the ruler presented at its base; “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!” (Shelley 590). This is the literal interpretation of the poem “Ozymandias”, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817. On the surface, it is simply a second hand description from a traveler of a statue in the desert he once saw, but as with many poems, there is more to it than can be inferred from a literal analysis. In the case of “Ozymandias” a deeper interpretation on the nature of legacies can be inferred through textual evidence and historical context.
This would be the second time in this literature class where I have focused on the historical context of a work. Prior to this, the discussion was about the writings of Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance.
I think this double major in literature and history is a good idea, as I seem to naturally move toward that direction.
