Jade Flower Palace

Tu Fu, translated by Kenneth Rexroth

The stream swirls. The wind moans in

The pines. Gray rats scurry over

Broken tiles. What prince, long ago,

Built this palace, standing in

5 Ruins beside the cliffs? There are

Green ghost fires in the black rooms.

The shattered pavements are all

Washed away. Ten thousand organ

Pipes whistle and roar. The storm

10 Scatters the red autumn leaves.

His dancing girls are yellow dust.

Their painted cheeks have crumbled

Away. His gold chariots

And courtiers are gone. Only

15 A stone horse is left of his

Glory. I sit on the grass and

Start a poem, but the pathos of

It overcomes me. The future

Slips imperceptibly away.

20 Who can say what the years will bring?

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of

stone

Stand in the desert…Near them, on the

5 sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose

frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold com-

mand,

10 Tell that its sculptor well those passions

read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless

things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart

15 that fed;

And of 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

20 Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign

lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.

Pericles' Funeral Oration (after 490 BCE)

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. 20

Na

me_

____

___

___

__

___

___

___

__

P

erio

d__

___

___

____

_

E

ven

though o

ur

essa

y w

ill

be

focu

sed b

y “

Th

e E

pic

of

Gil

gam

esh,”

I a

m a

skin

g y

ou t

o g

o

furt

her

. W

e hav

e lo

oked

at

Cre

atio

n M

yth

s an

d e

arly

art

and n

oti

ced t

hat

at

thei

r ro

ot,

they

are

indic

ativ

e of

the

hum

an d

esir

e to

mak

e se

nse

of

exis

tence

, dea

th;

they

are

att

empts

to e

xpla

in a

nd

under

stan

d t

he

wo

rld

, to

explo

re o

ur

iden

tity

and o

ur

nee

d f

or

com

pan

ionsh

ip;

they

are

ev

en a

ttem

pts

to b

ecom

e im

mort

al t

hro

ugh w

hat

we

crea

te.

In o

rder

to d

eal

wit

h a

com

mon

th

eme

con

nec

ted

to t

he

hu

man

con

dit

ion

, you

mu

st w

rite

a t

hes

is a

rgu

ing t

hat

“G

ilgam

esh

” a

nd

oth

er w

ork

s are

in

dic

ati

ve

of

a c

om

mon

qu

ali

ty o

f

hu

man

ity. Y

ou

mu

st i

nco

rpora

te o

ne

oth

er i

n-c

lass

tex

t or

crea

tion

myth

.

You

r es

say m

ust

in

clu

de

1.

“The

Epic

of

Gil

gam

esh”

2.

Anoth

er i

n-c

lass

sourc

e—cr

eati

on m

yth

s, a

rt, po

etry

, or

story

that

we

hav

e lo

oked

at.

You m

ust

use

this

oth

er t

ext

to s

upport

an a

rgum

ent

(your

thes

is)

that

ther

e is

a c

om

mon t

hem

e re

late

d

to t

he

hum

an c

ondit

ion t

hat

exis

ts i

n G

ilgam

esh

.