Question

Ramses II ruled over Egypt from the years 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE. A famous statue was erected to him during his reign, and the statue was discovered by archaeologists in the early 1800s CE. Over time, it had fallen and broken into pieces. In 1817, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was inspired to write a poem about a statue of an ancient ruler.
Read the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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.

Once you have read the text, examine the following depiction of what the statue of Ramses II would have looked like during his reign.

The sculptor of Ramses II and Shelley both depict an ancient ruler, but there are details in visual art that cannot be communicated through text. In a short response of at least five sentences, describe at least one detail clearly shown in the sculpture that is not evident in the poem. Include at least one specific reference to each work in your response.

Answer 1

One detail that is clearly shown in the sculpture but that is not evident in the poem is the fake beard that the pharaoh is wearing. Although we are not sure of the reason why pharaohs wore these, we do know that pharaohs shaved all of their facial hair, but wore fake beards, usually made out of metal. We can see this in the sculpture. However, while Shelley describes the face, including the frown and the wrinkled lip (Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read), he does not describe the pharaoh's beard.

Answer 2

The poet states that the statue had been destroyed and what were left was its leg and head. But in contrast to that the picture has a full statue with the entire body. Also the poet has stated that the face has a permanent frown due to ordering always, but here it does not seem to be. So therefore that is the one detail not clearly shown by the poet.