realtimetomes
Ozymandias vs Mrs Richards
43014 'The Railway Observer' doing literally that - observing the railway(!)- as it leads Network Rail's NMT through the Dorset countryside at Sandley working 1Q23 which started the day at Old Oak Common and will culminate at Salisbury having traversed The Mule to Exeter and back, the working is just about to enter the western end of Buckhorn Weston tunnel.
The splendour of a sizeable portion of Dorset is spread out for all to see and recalled to mind the sonnet 'Ozymandias' published in 1818 by English Romantic Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The much-quoted 14-line work is well know and oft-repeated, particularly lines 11 and 12, but less well known is the fact that just prior to publication the sonnet's final two lines were altered by Shelley himself. The text as originally intended by the writer was actually as follows;
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Yeah, the Blackmore Vale,
that's right, I did that, check it out!"
Loving your work Ozymandias, can I call you Ozzy?
On the subject of fictional terrraforming, this all reminds me of the character Slartibartfast from Douglas Adams' wonderful 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and also strangely brings to mind 'Mrs Richards' from the Fawlty Towers episode "Communication Problems" - when shown the view of Torquay out of her hotel window she replies "well it's not good enough!". Hopefully Mrs Richards would have appreciated this view.
Ozymandias vs Mrs Richards
43014 'The Railway Observer' doing literally that - observing the railway(!)- as it leads Network Rail's NMT through the Dorset countryside at Sandley working 1Q23 which started the day at Old Oak Common and will culminate at Salisbury having traversed The Mule to Exeter and back, the working is just about to enter the western end of Buckhorn Weston tunnel.
The splendour of a sizeable portion of Dorset is spread out for all to see and recalled to mind the sonnet 'Ozymandias' published in 1818 by English Romantic Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The much-quoted 14-line work is well know and oft-repeated, particularly lines 11 and 12, but less well known is the fact that just prior to publication the sonnet's final two lines were altered by Shelley himself. The text as originally intended by the writer was actually as follows;
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Yeah, the Blackmore Vale,
that's right, I did that, check it out!"
Loving your work Ozymandias, can I call you Ozzy?
On the subject of fictional terrraforming, this all reminds me of the character Slartibartfast from Douglas Adams' wonderful 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and also strangely brings to mind 'Mrs Richards' from the Fawlty Towers episode "Communication Problems" - when shown the view of Torquay out of her hotel window she replies "well it's not good enough!". Hopefully Mrs Richards would have appreciated this view.