Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Ozymandias by Shelley.




















Slept very well today and was only woken by a sudden jolting spasm that seemed to drag me up and down in the bed.

Richie heard me and responded by fetching me a bag of the THC vapour from the Volcano vaporizer.

As soon as I had inhaled the vapour I fell asleep again only to be woken by Richie removing the bag from my hand.

He asked me if I wanted another and I said yes and got one quite soon after and as I inhaled that one I fell asleep again.

Knew that I had when I woke up again with Spike sitting by my bed making a little whimpering noise as he had not got my attention.

Poor boy, he turned and walked out just as I was waking up and immediately rushed back next to the bed and put his paws up against the bed to look at me.

He is such a sweet little dog, probably had been sat next to me for some time and popping up every now and then to check out whether I was finally awake enough to throw his toy for him.

As soon as I woke he got me his Kong so I could throw it up the room, of course this is even better if Marleen grabs it as then the game goes on even longer.

Richie came in with his coffee and switched on the radio, there was a program with Clive Stafford-Smith.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m69jw


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Stafford_Smith

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/

http://www.videojug.com/interview/renditions-and-secret-prisons-2

He was talking about his work and his charity Reprieve, and reading from books he liked such as Shelley’s sonnet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley


''The central theme of "Ozymandias" is the inevitable decline of all men, and of the empires they build, however mighty in their own time''

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias.

‘I 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 sculptorwell 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 away.'

An incredible sonnet about the hubris, the arrogance of Kings to think that they matter more than anything else.

Ozymandias is long gone and forgotten and nothing remains of his erstwhile Empire but sand as far as the eye can see.

Ozymandias was another name for Ramesses the Great Pharaoh of Egypt.

An interesting radio program which I enjoyed very much.

Then just when I was writing this Marianne arrived and we had a pleasant two hours chatting about her cats mainly, as one is at the Vet’s having plaque removed from its teeth.

Seems the Cat Boat, the floating Cat Sanctuary did not look after the cat so well as it seems he has had this infection for sometime, no wonder he was not eating so much food and even totally stopped eating for 3 days recently.

Poor Lewis as the plaque was untreated it became infected and hurt him quite a lot.

Hope that the Vet’s bill is not too high as Marianne can not afford it; this is really something tat should have been checked out by the Cat Boat when they took the cats in to their boat in February.

Marianne has done the right thing for the cats and Lewis will soon be able to eat pain free again.

On that optimistic note I would like to wish everyone a good Tuesday.

11 comments:

Richie said...

I love a bit of Shelley once in a while Ode to the West Wind gets me stirred up.
Mr Stafford-Smith is quite a fellow and I enjoyed his collection of poems and prose this morning- the poem in praise of war by General Paten was amazing!

Herrad said...

Hi Richie
Thanks for your comment
Shelley is quite a fellow too.
Love,
Herrad

soulful sepulcher said...

Hi Herrad, it's nice to get lost in poetry, it takes us to places in our mind, using a lot of visualization.

Good for the kitty getting teeth cleaned. when my youngest was still in HS she had to do a "job shadow" for school assignment where you go to a professional, career person and shadow them for the day. She chose a veterinarian because she loves animals. She came home all upset because they had her watch a teeth cleaning of a cat. it was because they gave the cat a traquilizer so it appeared "dead" and lifeless, (and hold still for the cleaning i guess).

Hope you both have a nice evening. It's misty rain here this morning, about 60 degrees, so it's pleasant so far, not too hot.

Autumn is on the way here too.

Herrad said...

Hi Stephany,
Thanks for coming by today, it has been a good day and after the downpour it got warmer and now the sky is blue again and the fan is on too.
The cat had to have 7 teeth pulled that were too rotten, in two days the pain shgould be gone and Marianne can strop giving him painkillers.
Shame the CXat Boat did not check the cat out as well as they should have.
Oh well thats one down to experience.
Have a good day.
Love,
Herrad

soulful sepulcher said...

Oh teeth pulled, poor cat! that's awful!

Herrad said...

Hi Stephany,
The good news is he ate all his food.
Love,
Herrad

Nancy said...

Hope her bill isn't too high. Nice that she takes care of her cats so well. Loved the pics, especially of all the pelicans sailing away. :-)

Hope you are well.

Anonymous said...

Hello Herrad! I'm late again today! Hope you had a nice evening. I love the photos of the birds. I saw a green hummingbird today, cute thing was flying around my flowery sheets on the clothesline, I guess it was trying to figure out if it was a real flower! Of course, no camera...yes, you are right, I need to disguise myself to catch that woodpecker on film, lol! I have some great news! On Thursday morning, I have my final car payment, which means I'm totally out of debt! Phewf! Having no debt means I can afford to have the "fun day"!!! I have never had no debt...well, except when I was a kid! Feels so freeing. I'm listening to the 80's station right now, gosh it takes me back, I can't believe I'm 41...lol! Btw, check out my blog tomorrow, it's Spencer's 14th b-day and I'm going to write a little tribute to my boy! :-)

Herrad said...

Hi Nancy,
Lovely to hear from you.
Marianne is a very nice woman, she is very committed to giving her 2 cats a good life.

Hi Rain,
Great to see your comment, good news about Thursday, well done.
Hope you have a very enjoyable fun day.
Look forward to seeing your tribute to Spencer tomorrow.

Thanks for coming by, great seeing your comments.
Have a good day tomorrow.
Love,
Herrad

Celeste Maia said...

Fascinating text, Herrad. I went to internet to find out more about "ozymandias" and found the sonnet Percy Smith published a month after Shelley with the same title. Very good entry.

Herrad said...

Hi Celeste Maia,
It was a good radio program, really nice to find this unexpected treat yesterday morning.
Have a good day.
Love,
Herrad