In deference to our Iranienne, Marjan, I just thought I’d post this heads up for “The Art of Persia” on the BBC. Just watched first episode about Darius, Xerxes et al. I’m sure this is the only way I’ll ever get to see such places, so worth a peek.
ANDREW
PS obvs it would be wrong to let this opportunity pass without including Shelley:-
Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias”
I met a traveller 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.[4]
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