‘My name is OZYMANDIAS, King of Kings:
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
We are delighted to offer tube travellers a new summer set of poems.
The poems will circulate on London Underground and Overground trains for 4 weeks from July 18th.
Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias, inspired by the Egyptian ruins at the British Museum, marks the bicentenary of the poet’s death on July 8th, 1822, aged 29.
Our international theme continues with famous lines by the 17th century Dean of St Pauls, John Donne: ‘No man is an island, entire of itself…’ from meditation 17, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
Also featured: ‘Caterpillar’ by Guillaume Apollinaire, in a new version by the British poet and translator Robert Chandler. Reprinted by permission of Robert Chandler from Guillaume Apollinaire, Poems, translated by Robert Chandler (Everyman 2000)
An extract from War of the Beasts and the Animals by the dissident Russian poet Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale. Reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books from Maria Stepanova, War of the Beasts and the Animals, trans. Sasha Dugdale (2021)
‘Ditches’ by the Irish poet Jessica Traynor. Reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books from Pit Lullabies (2022)
‘Dei Miracole’ by the popular poet, playwright and broadcaster Lemn Sissay. Copyright © Listener by Lemn Sissay, 2008. First published in Great Britain by Canongate Books Ltd.
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
No Man is an Island by John Donne
Caterpillar La Chenille by Guillaume Apollinaire, translated by Robert Chandler
from War of the Beasts and the Animals by Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale
Ditches by Jessica Traynor
‘Dei Miracole’ by Lemn Sissay
You can find the rest of our Poems from July 2022 here