User:Oz MH

Hi Everyone.

I am here because I love history, language, science and engineering.

You may be wondering why the username 'OZ MH'?

Well, MH are the initials of my real name which I do not wish to divulge.

OZ is short for Ozymandias, the original 'nom de plume' I used when I first went on the net and joined various messageboards and discussion groups. It is taken from a poem by Shelley and I chose it because I think the poem puts all notions of greatness in perspective and really admonishes us not to take ourselves too seriously. History teaches us that everything is transitory and I wonder how much of my life and work will survive the ravages of time. I know I won't!

I also identify with the traveller in the poem who explores the deserts of ancient lands to find some long-lost and forgotten bit of history. As an amateur historian that is what I do on occasion, except that my deserts are dusty archives! I hope that the little nuggets of information about the past that I dig up are as interesting to relate as the traveller's tale in the poem.

In some sense, too, I feel like the poet himself who never actually sees Ramses statue or visits the antique land in which it lies half buried in the sand. I am an armchair traveller - an internet historian - who will only meet fellow pilgrims on the world wide web.

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==== 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.'

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[Percy Bysshe Shelly] ================