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