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
