How have museum objects and antiquities inspired arts and literature? Read and listen to a famous poem written two hundred years ago by English author Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias." Then, view artworks which in turn were inspired by the poem. View the environmental landscapes and settings in ancient Egypt which inspired the original poem about the colossal sculpture of a famous ruler from over three thousand years ago. The collection concludes with a link to view a draft of the poem. Will Shelley's work inspire the creation of your own poem or artwork about a place you've traveled, or an object you've seen in a museum?

keywords: sonnet, Ancient Egypt, Ramesses II, Thebes, impermanence, cultural patrimony