Coleridge's Kubla Khanhan Or A Vision In A Dream: A Fragment

Poetry is used to express several different mediums through: structure, tone, imagery and rhyme schemes. John Keats’s ode “To Autumn” and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan” or, a Vision in a Dream” will be critically analyzed, compared and contrasted to each throughout this paper to further dissected the meaning of each poem.

In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Coleridge, Coleridge shows various characteristics of Romantic poetry in his writings, the two most important ones being nature and supernatural beings. In “The Rime

He used his opiate withdrawal as an example of this statement, with his physical and psychological issues of withdrawal involving his sleep and dreams. The influence of religion and the raw distinction of imagination are two themes of the “Romantic” period that are established in Coleridge’s poem. With the clever use of syntax, diction, lineage, and hidden connections to religion, Coleridge is able to clearly show readers what his message is throughout the

Tempo and rhythm of the passage also play an essential role in influencing the moods. The moods of the passage are overwhelming intensity, envy, fear, and hopelessness. The poem begins with the mood of overwhelming intensity of the intimacy between the lovers. Then, the mood transitions to a state of envy and fear of which issues between the man and the woman are showing and clearly threaten the very foundation of the relationship. Lastly, the poem ends with a sense of hopelessness between the two; damage is done and the relationship is simply broken beyond repair. The poem is split into six stanzas; two six-line stanzas, one large stanza composed of a whopping 24 lines. Lastly, the last three stanzas are made up of two lines each and then a one-line stanza to conclude the

After travelling on his imaginative journey, Coleridge is led to a change of feeling about the bower which ceases to be a prison and instead becomes a thing of comfort. It was his own mental processes which shaped it into a prison and it is through his imagination that he can escape this prison. Thus imagination is also presented as a form of escape the poet seeks, with the ability to transcend physical and psychological barriers, although he retains awareness that this is simply his imagination by words such as “perchance.”

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The City in the Sea” takes its’ readers to a realm of gloom where Death is personified as a tyrant ruler. During the poem, the observer is witnessing the ruins of a dead civilization. The people, who one resided there, worshiped material things,

Even though the poem may have started out what seems to be happy, but Coleridge changes the tone immediately. All of a sudden everything seems to be darker, and Coleridge now calls it “A savage place! Holy and enchanted”. Emerson would believe that just by calling Xanadu a savage place that the imagery of this nature is so strong that it “speaks to the imagination”. Coleridge then describes a woman, crying for her “demon-lover”. Using this wording, and creating a dark, sad image, Emerson would believe that Coleridge, himself may be searching for his own lover. Coleridge then began to describe a forceful weather change, which resulted in Kubla hearing “Ancestral voices prophesying war!”. The ancestors are foreshadowing a war, but not the kind that you would go into battle for. The type of war that the ancestors are talking about is more about fighting for someone whom they love. Emerson would then interpret it as possible a miracle. The

All humans have the ability to imagine anything, regardless of whether it’s realistic or not. As a result, the human imagination can go beyond one’s own horizon and expand indefinitely. Samuel Taylor Coleridge emphasizes the importance of the imagination in his poems. Therefore, in his poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” he uses supernatural forces to describe the vividness of the human imagination.

Browning, through the very way he structured and formatted the poem, further emphasized the theme of reality and fantasy. Within the first few lines, Browning introduces this nimble type flow to the poem, but as the

With these three topics Coleridge supported his theme of love for nature and his wife. Within the poem Coleridge helps guide the reader through his train of thoughts on how he is expressing his feelings towards his wife and nature. Having used alliteration, we can feel what the poet is feeling, how he expresses how his wife shines bright and has a nice scent is made easy to us as a reader because of these alliterations. The following way that Samuel Coleridge could convey this theme of love without actually making it a love poem was by using different types of imagery. Imageries are very helpful when it comes to expressions, by putting down on paper what he saw his wife and nature be like, how they smelled, how they tasted and how they even felt is by far one of the best ways to help convey his theme. First let’s focus on how Coleridge “Saw” both nature and his wife through this visual imagery. “With white-flower’d Jasmin, and the broad-leave’d myrtle/ Meet emblems they of innocence and love!” (4-5) He saw both nature and his wife as these pure things that brought love and hope to his life. Another visual imagery that he used was that both his wife and nature brought this brightness to his life, like in “Bubbles that glitter as they rise and break.” (56). The next piece of imagery that helps the reader see this theme of love would be the auditory imagery,

One of the dominant techniques present in “Kubla Khan” is contrasting imagery. Coleridge repeatedly compares the “bright” area surrounding the dome to the “lifeless” and “haunted” area surrounding the river. He continually repeats the phrases “pleasure-dome” and “sunny” when discussing the dome, whereas for his illustration of the surrounding river and caverns, “caves of ice” is most prominent. One idea as to why this was so implemented is the idea that the poem “contrasts a man-made, earthly paradise, which proves to be unable to resist demonic forces and is doomed to be annihilated, with a “true” form of paradise;” (Schroeder) that the Earth, no matter how beautiful it might seem, always falls victim to certain destructive forces.

Such a situation warrants Coleridge the title of visionary, and therefore his poem becomes a vision: a Romantically textual utopia whose realisation was challenged by the rational status quo of its historical origin. Due to this, Coleridge’s work will always seek practical affirmation and will therefore constantly be the source of metaphysically-oriented debate, leaving the dualism that rules it to be decided by the reader and the ideologies he or she brings to the text. This conclusion is supported by the words of John Beer:

There are likely many themes that are worth mentioning in “Kubla Khan”. Some of the things are complementary to each other, while others, such as creation and destruction, are opposites, yet are often found together. Many of the themes are positive while others are negative. There is a sense of mystery that pervades the poem, such that the meaning is largely left up to interpretation. “Kubla Khan” tells a story, yet it also seems to be trying to make a point. Some of the more noticeable themes in this poem are creation, destruction, and imagination.

Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” is a bright example of the transforming power imagination has. The poet’s usage of diction and allegories transform this poem into a symbol for imagination. It is said that it was written after Coleridge’s encounter with the sublime while still being under the effect of opium, and when he went to record it, he was disrupted by a visitor and the remaining of the poem was lost even to him. In the poem he shows how possibilities are limitless as long as our imaginations are; Coleridge uses “caverns measureless to man” as a

Samuel Coleridge's poem “Kubla Khan” is an example of romantic creative thought which uses idealistic process to capture a dream of another world. Through the use of strong imagery, Coleridge produces a paradise like vision of a rich landscape, which is surrounded by a dome built by the main character named for the title, Kublah Khan. This alludes to an important aspect of the poems theme, man verses nature. The overriding theme of the work contains extensive imagery that allows for imagination to change the world in the face of conflict. Coleridge uses vocabulary based on contrast and rhythm for his alliteration and assonance, this paints a world where good and evil becomes easily identifiable.