Part 1: Context and Background Read the context information below and summarise it in 5 bullet points: Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was an English poet and a key figure in the Romantic movement of the late 1700s and early 1800s. The Romantic movement was a time in Literature when writers rejected order and rules in favour of writing about emotions, feelings and experiences. Their writing explored the beauty and power of nature and the importance of the imagination. Shelley’s views were considered radical at the time: he was expelled from Oxford University for writing a pamphlet about the importance of Atheism and he opposed the monarchy and the church for being corrupt and abusing their power. In 1818 Shelley and his friend Horace Smith had a competition to write a poem inspired by the broken statue of an Egyptian Pharaoh, Rameses II, which had just been acquired by the British Museum. Their poems explore how nothing man makes is permanent and all human power fades.
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