Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
“And Wrinkled Lip, and Sneer of Cold Command”
“That Colossal Wreck”
-Shelley, “Ozymandias”
Now where have all the red caps of
livery gone?
The bumper stickers, the banners,
the made-in-China tees
The tattered flags that fanned
our people cold
The tatty bibles with their
leader’s ‘graph
An old man plays with a toy triumphal
arch
Neither Doric nor Ionic nor
Corinthian
But rather after the order of
Albert Speer
Astride a cemetery axis road
Like a pompous colossus in gold
and gilt -
But by the Grace of God, never to
be built
Allusions, Collusions, and Confusions
Title: from
“Ozymandias”
1. An
allusion to “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?”, a song of disastrous transition
and a circle of death caused by war. The origins are worth reading up.
1. Livery in
the sense of a wealthy master’s uniforms or costumes for his servants or slaves
2-4. The vulgar
merchandising of the presidency
3. Macbeth
I.ii.56-57
4. The
merchandizing of the presidency and Christianity, with non-canonical secular
content that appears to form a biased foundation document establishing a
national religion
6. The three
noble orders of architecture
7. Albert
Speer was Hitler’s architect. The proposed Trump arch is reminiscent of Speer’s
heavy-footed and often cluttered designs. Toward the end of his, oh, career
Hitler often retreated to the room where Speer’s models were kept so that he
could play with them
8. The
proposed Trump arch would dominate the road to Arlington, a siting which many
perceive as disrespectful to the American war dead buried there
9. Colossus
– many historical and literary allusions. Shelley’s “Ozymandias” has often been
referenced in the dissolution of the trumperies of tyrants, their architectural,
artistic, and name-stamping vanities
9. The axis
/ Axis wordplay is obvious
9 – 10. Gilt
as guilt, another obvious wordplay
