1st Day of School

Prof of Profs Poem
by Geoffrey Brock


I was a math major—fond of all things rational.
It was the first day of my first poetry class.
The prof, with the air of a priest at latin mass,
told us that we could “make great poetry personal,”

could own it, since poetry we memorize sings
inside us always. By way of illustration
he began reciting Shelley with real passion,
but stopped at “Ozymandias, king of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”-
because, with that last plosive, his top denture
popped from his mouth and bounced of an empty chair.

He blinked, then offered, as a postscript to his lecture,
a promise so splendid it made me give up math:
“More thingth like that will happen in thith class.”

1. What was your expectation of where this student was going with the poem? What was going to happen in the poetry class with this math major?

2. What did the professor mean when he said to “make great poetry personal?”

3. Here is a copy of the poem, “Ozymandias, King of Kings.” Give a very short summary as to its what it is about.

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveler 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 away.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

1792-1822

4. Why do you think that Geoffrey Brock chose this poem of Percy Shelley for his poem? (Look for a clue in the line he quotes from the poem.

5. Go to this website:

www.wordle.net

Click on “Create your own” and paste this poem into the space provided, and then follow the directions on the tab after you upload it to get the effect you want. That turns this poem into a sort of “Concrete Poem” in a very vague sort of way.

Image: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.pbase.com/u47/sadie04/upload/39998249.ozymandais.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pbase.com/sadie04/image/39998249&h=678&w=542&sz=61&hl=en&start=10&tbnid=woQCxVijoc04PM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dozymandias%2Bking%2Bof%2Bkings%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Thing 2. The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried Slide Presentation

Works Cited

1. John McCain after POW Release. Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001. PHONE: 301-837-3530; FAX: 301-837-3621; EMAIL: stillpix@nara.gov.

2. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Center for Legislative Archives (NWL), National Archives Building, Room 8E, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408. PHONE: 202-357-5350; FAX: 202-357-5911; EMAIL: legislative.archives@nara.gov.

3. Photographs and other Graphic Materials from the President (1953-1961 : Eisenhower). (1953 - 1961)

4. Boy at Wall. http://photo2.si.edu/vvm/quay.html

5. Disabled Vet. History 256: The Vietnam War. NARA via pingnews. Additional information from source: NARA via pingnews. Additional information from source: ARC Identifier: 195917 Title: Disabled veteran, ca. 1943 ARC Identifier: 195917

6. Medevac in Vietnam, Medevac, Vietnam War, 1967 by E.J. Filtz (NARA), 

7. Wounded Soldier. ARC Identifier: 558532. Title: South China Sea....A nurse tends a patient just out of surgery in the intensive care ward of the hospital ship USS Repose (AH-16). The ship is steaming off the coast of Vietnam a few miles south of the 17th parallel., 10/1967. Creator: Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center.

8. Boy Bandaged. Two battalions of Viet Cong systematically killed 252 civilians in a "vengeance" attack on the small hemlet of Dak Son. Tears are streaming down the face of little three-year-old Dieu Do, now homeless, and fatherless. December 6, 1967. (USIA). NARA FILE #: 3306-MVP-4-11. WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 425.

9. A portrait of a US serviceman who died in Southeast Asia, placed at the base of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the day before its official dedication. DoD photo by: MICKEY SANBORN Date Shot: 12 Nov 1982

10. President (1963-1969 : Johnson). White House Photograph Office. (1963 - 1969) LBJ-WHPO: White House Photo Office Collection, 11/22/1963 - 01/20/1969. Location: Lyndon Baines Johnson Library (NLLBJ), 2313 Red River Street, Austin, TX 78705-5702 PHONE: 512-721-0212, FAX: 512-721-0170, EMAIL: johnson.library@nara.gov. Production Date: 12/07/1963. Part of: Series: Johnson White House Photographs, 11/22/1963 - 01/20/1969

11. S. Vietnamese Soldier Buries Son. Title: Vietnam. This picture is one that would reach potentially every father in the world. It was used as the cover of a pamphlet which describes the truth about the cause of the subversive insurgency in Vietnam. Such dramatic pictorial appeals draw sympathy from the reader before a word is read, thus making the remainder of the story also more sympathetic to the audience., 1966. Creator: Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer. (09/18/1947 - 02/28/1964).

12. Young Soldier Resting. Location: Still Picture Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001 PHONE: 301-837-3530, FAX: 301-837-3621, EMAIL: stillpix@nara.gov. Production Date: 1969.

13. Arlington Cemetery. DF Shapinsky for PINGNews.com/Shapinsky MultiMedia. pingnews.com and shapinsky.net.

14. Young Marine in DaNang. Records of the U. S. Marine Corps. (127-W-A-185146) By an unknown photographer, August 3, 1965. "Da Nang, Vietnam...A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing"

15. Viet Cong Prisoner. Youthful hard-core Viet Cong, heavily guarded, awaits interrogation following capture in the attacks on the capital city during the festive Tet holiday period. 1968. (USIA). EXACT DATE SHOT UNKNOWN. NARA FILE #: 306-MVP-21-1. WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 414.

16. Soldiers at Hut. As the second phase of operation "Thayer," the 1st Air Cavalry Division (airmobile) is having operation"Irving" in the area 25 miles north of Qui Nhon which lies 400 miles north-northeast of Saigon. The 1st Air Cavalry was given the mission of clearing a mountain range where an estimated two battalions of North Vietnam regulars were supposed to be massing an attack on Hammond Airstrip. Troops of "A" Company, checking house during patrol., 10/06/1966. Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovisual Center.

17. Wounded Soldier 2. Members of Co. "A" pull a wounded man from a fox hole during the action on Hill 822 near Dak To. “All photos are official U.S. Army Photos. Photos are "Public Domain" and may be freely copied or downloaded."

18. Dead Viet Cong. RVN Saigon Viet Cong dead after an attack on the perimeter of Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain). Photo by: SP5 Edgar Price Pictorial A.V. Plt. 69th Sig. Bn. (A).

19. Map of South Viet Nam. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Southvietmap.jpg

20. Battle for Hue2: http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2960a

21. Battle for Hue3. http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2956a

22. Beheaded Viet Cong. Vietnam GI Newsletter, May 1968. 

22. Long Khanh Fallen. By Pfc. L. Paul Epley, 1966
National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer.

23. Dead Viet Cong w/One Shoe Missing. Photo by: SP5 Edgar Price Pictorial A.V. Plt. 69th Sig. Bn. (A).

24. Dead Viet Cong, one w/toe ring. Photo by: 1Lt. E.B. Herr Neckar Pictorial A.V. Plt. 69th Sig. Bn. (A).

25. Moments after being wounded by enemy fire SFC Howard C. Breedlove (DASPO) receives medical attention from 2Lt. Richard M. Griffith (DASPO). This scene was received on Plantation Rd. in Gia Dinh, a suburb of Saigon. This action was part of what became known as the Post-Tet Offensive or the May Offensive of 1968. Several days later Lt. Griffith was also wounded. Photo by SP4 Bryan Grigsby.

26. The Cu Chi Tunnels used by the Viet Cong. Inside the Cu Chi Tunnels in Viet Nam. Infamous and effective during the war, the tunnels are now a popular tourist attraction. Photo date: 20-OCT-1997 Photo taken by Wikimedia Commons user Kevyn Jacobs, released into the public dom)