8 Comments
User's avatar
Steve Elliott's avatar

'The lone and level sands stretch far away'

Irving A. Lerch's avatar

Ozymandias. The monument to human hubris is irrelevance. In my case the forbidden path remains my fate.

Mac Sterling's avatar

I appreciate the metaphor of footsteps in sand. Subject to erasure, likely to be erased within a generation or two. No matter what steps we have taken in life, our footprints are indistinguishable from each other. We must therefore enjoy the stepping.

Irving A. Lerch's avatar

Mac, the crucial word is "foresworn" in the last stanza: ...but it is the foresworn path that is taking me to where I must go. It is in answer to Frost's "Road not taken." Foresworn, the past participle of forsworn, is an allusion to the denied or forbidden path. The footsteps in the sand will surely be erased but someone will always follow.

Mac Sterling's avatar

I’m not always a snark. I really am comforted by continuity. Sand of course evokes beach and desert. Both places make my concerns seem small.

Mac Sterling's avatar

That is a comforting thought.

Irving A. Lerch's avatar

I can tell you're not comforted.

George Giacoppe's avatar

Nice. It speaks to me personally.