The Wizard of Ozymandias

...would be non other than the late, great English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The students of Room 503 have just begun to take on one of Shelley's shortest, as well as one of his most famous, poems, Ozymandias (published in 1818). The sonnet, with an unusual rhyme scheme, is about Ramses II, pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, and his rise and fall. The central theme focuses on hubris and how this character flaw plays out over and over again in history.

As with Jabberwocky, the students will be learning the poem line by line. Tonight they will begin at the beginning:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert.

And we'll go from there. By the end of the school year, it is my hope, that along with better diction and projection skills our Sixth Graders will know at least six important pieces of literature that they will be able to carry with them throughout their lifetimes.

Cheers,
Ms. Pitman