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The poem is itself ironic... it's about Ramses III who rule c. 1000 BC and yet was famous enough that poetry would be inspired by him 3000 years later.
by mjburgess 13y ago
The poem is itself ironic... it's about Ramses III who rule c. 1000 BC and yet was famous enough that poetry would be inspired by him 3000 years later.
- mturmon 13y agoI agree. When I was younger, I only got the obvious message about the transience of material accomplishment. The poem is more multifaceted than that. One starting place is to think about the layers of interpretation (Ramses -> sculptor -> traveler -> narrator). Everyone concerned is still talking, in different ways, about the memory of Ramses. As long as we're on the topic, here's one of my favorite expressions of parallels between us and people in the past: https://plus.google.com/+Cornell/posts/MSaUEUpVB8q https://plus.google.com/+Cornell/posts/MSaUEUpVB8q This bench sits behind the library at Cornell University.
- bloaf 13y agoLacking belief in an afterlife, many early civilizations instead strove to achieve immortality in "kleos": the fame that does not decay.