Ozymandias, King of Kings
Romanticism in a time of war. That's what makes The Economist such a refreshing read. In "Saddam's last victory" (subscription required), the leader writer this week quotes "Ozymandias", one of Percy Bysshe Shelley's best-known poems, which takes its title from the Greek name for Ramses II, the Egyptian pharaoh from whom Moses and the Israelites fled during the Exodus.
Given the damage suffered by the trans-Atlantic alliance, the disarray within the EU and the discord at the UN, The Economist feels that a gloating Saddam, who is reputed to love poetry, may now be reciting Shelley's: "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
But, says the leader writer: "Shelly's poem, though, was a poignant one, about how a tyrant's ambitions, carved on a pedestal, become a broken wreck. That is what now needs to happen to Saddam Hussein."
The paper reviews the long charge sheet on the dictator and then rounds on those who believe that containment or even retreat is a suitable strategy for dealing with him:
"That would also be the worst outcome for the 25m Iraqis themselves. Their interests seem barely to be considered in the debate over this war. Yet they offer one of the most powerful arguments in its favour For them, containment has been deadly, and so has SaddamHussein. He, his family and his forces have ruled Iraq by terror, maiming, torturing and killing hundreds of thousands of people, while ruining the lives of many millions more. Again, the critics ask, why single out Saddam when the world is full of human-rights abusers? To which the answer, first, is that he is clearly one of the very worst; and, second, why not? If you cannot deal with all mass murderers, should you therefore deal with none of them?"
In recent months, Saddam has achieved much and conceded little. But, says The Economist, "His short term success is going to lead to war. And so it should." The task now facing those who have the courage to face down the tyrant is to ensure his defeat so that his latest victory will be his last.
OzymandiasI 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.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Shelley wrote the sonnet "Ozymandias" in 1818. Four years later, shortly before his 30th birthday, he was drowned in a storm while attempting to sail from Livorno to La Spezia.
Diarist of the day: Gerard Manley Hopkins, 15 March 1868"Fine and summer-like -- With Stokes on the Quinton Road. Chervil and wood-sorrel out. Hawthorn sprays papered with young leaves. -- Venus like an apple of light. ."
