Poem 4/27

The poem ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley was surprisingly a very interesting and nice poem. I enjoyed the tone of the poem, I loved how the author used words like ‘dessert’, decay’, and phrases like ‘antique lands’, ‘colossal wreck, and level sands’ to get across this feeling of desolation, and loneliness. The way this poem was written made the mood how I felt reading the poem very calm, sad, and mysterious in a way. From my initial impression when reading the poem I felt like I was in the middle of an abandoned, desolate, and barren land where a empire once stood. I really liked that aspect of the poem, I feel it magnifies the overall feeling of the poem and idea of the fall of ‘all’ empires and kingdoms that once ruled a long time ago but eventually fell to ruins. After reading the poem I did research on the title and found out that ‘Ozymandias’ was an Egyptian ‘King of King’ also known as Ramesses. He had an enormous statue of him a tribute in a way, yet it fell only leaving the feet and legs. Then in 1817 the British Museum announced a new addition, a 7.25 ton head sculpture of Ramesses II. This is what inspired Percy Shelley along with others to write this poem. In a way he expresses his fascination and sorrow for the fallen empire and ‘fallen’ king. I enjoyed the mood the poem portrays but I don’t think the poem has any deeper meaning to it, as if there’s only a layer or two. I can say that the imagery, symbolism, and diction made up for the lack of depth but I still was looking for more. I couldn’t really relate to this poem at all, whereas the other poem I chose to read out of curiosity didn’t fail to appeal to my senses or push my comprehension of new themes and ideas.      

Poem 4/30
‘On Being Brought from Africa to America’ by Phillis Wheatley is again another one of my favorite poems. From the title you know the poem is going to be about slavery. Although you don’t know exactly from whose point of view it’ll be told. The last poem I read that had to do with slavery,‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ by Langston Hughes was told through the eyes of a Native African. Being told from that point of view made the poem a lot more personal adding this genuine sentimental emotion to the poem as a whole. Although it made the poem more sad and really made reader think about what the poem was trying to get across, I felt stepping away from that typical point of view and switching it to maybe a ‘slave master’ or ‘northerner against slavery’ would add a new twist on what the poem would say other than; ‘I’m a slave, I’m sad, I was taken from my home.” It’s all too familiar and wanted something new. 

Now as I read the poem I found again it was told from the point of view of a ‘African’, or ‘slave’. Even though I was looking for that twist I felt the diction/ word choice was specifically picked to strike imagination, curiosity, and deeper meaning. The first line captivating enough. “ 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land.” This line is a satire itself, ‘the white man is mercy’ yet the white man showed no type of mercy when it came to slavery and discrimination. The next lines, “Taught my benighted soul to understand, That there's a God, that there's a Saviour  too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.” These lines basically say that bringing the Africans to America introduced them to Christianity, a God and savior - which is another satirical comment because the ‘white man’ is a christian but treats the slaves wrongly. Lastly, “Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die”, says that discrimination is huge and that the ‘diabolic die’ that ‘African Americans’ are born with separates everyone from being a whole. And the last line, “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refined, and join th' angelic train” again satirized slavery, referencing, the ‘trains’ of Africans they chained together, and talks about how the can be refined.