Consciousness Of Consciousness In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Eolian Harp

Another technique of emphasis used throughout the poem is the use of imagery. Coleridge personifies the nature around him by comparing it to abstract nouns - the white flowerd Jasmin represents Innocence, the broad-leavd

A single inanimate object, The Eolian Harp, sends Coleridge flitting in, out, over and through introspection. The trajectory of the poem may be plotted as follows: terrestrial observations, fixation upon single terrestrial item (i.e. the harp), exulting single item into transcendence, an astral purview of the terrestrial via the item, reassessment of mind frame, guilt and denunciation of transcendent thought, and finally, remorse and

‘Sleep’ uses imagery, rhyme, melancholy disillusion and elaborate language. In stanza one sleep asks the sleeper if they will give themselves to sleep fully, in the physical and non-physical state, the way children do. The sleeper effortlessly states ‘yes utterly’. This stanza is also in a soft and gentle tone the repetition of the ‘b’ sound, giving the poem and thumping feel, in the way a heartbeat would. After stanza one, stanza two continues this soft repetition and rhyming of the ‘b’ sound, Slessor uses imagery in the form of water. This is evident with the use of the word ‘estuary’ which means river mouth. This is used as water and sleep are both as necessary as each other. Slessor also uses imagery to depict the way someone would fall asleep. He

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.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge viewed the world in a different light than his peers. He was known as one of the greatest poets of the Romantic Period, but he had a hard, troubled life and this was reflected in his poems. Most of his poems were not only made to indulge the reader, but to make the reader think. His poems were much deeper than just their literal meaning. They invited the reader into Coleridge’s heart and mind. In doing so, the reader learned a different way to view the world and what Coleridge felt. Many of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poems include intimate self-revelation of the poet by expressing emotions, thoughts, and using spirituality, such as is seen in “This Lime Tree Bower- my Prison” and “Dejection: An Ode”.

At the end of chapter 20 in Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria, Coleridge describes his own experience with poetry and its effect on others’ imagination from an outsiders point of view:

The poem Forgetfulness by Billy Collins is described about the nature of forgetting things. The writer of the poem is defined as someone who is suffering from forgetfulness. I get the feeling that the person who is writing this is intended to be someone older, someone who has lived through many experiences. The speaker is addressing everyone who will one day get one get old and realize that they too will start to forget things. I believe that the written himself is warning the audience about memory loss later in life and relates to memory loss as a whole and how it tends to affect himself and others.

“Ode to enchanted light” by Pablo Neruda (1904- 1973) and “Sleeping in the Forest” by Mary Oliver (b. 1935) are both lyrical poems that both express their love for nature and the beauty of it. Neruda and Oliver recognized and accomplished writers who have both won many awards for their work in literature. Both of the poets express different styles and forms of writing as of figurative language and structure. The poem “Ode to enchanted light” is a lyrical poem which functions as a free verse poem because it doesn’t follow any set of rules but is still considered a traditional poem due to the fact that it is an ode. Although there is no rhythm in this poem, one could argue that there is because of the alliterative “s” sound being repeated throughout

In addition to enhancing symbolic implications, Coleridge’s diction heightens the poem’s morbid imagery to demonstrate how female sensuality has heedlessly been stripped away to accommodate regressive societal beliefs. Evidently, Coleridge uses this strategy to enhance the reader’s visual and tactile senses when describing a leaf’s despondent autumnal activity, alluding to the overarching issue of subjugation. The description illustrating the leaf’s imminent decaying nature is synonymous with a woman’s dispirited mentality after being told by society that enjoying sex or expressing sexual urges is not part of the female role. To build upon the leaf’s significance, Coleridge states:

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:

Throughout the beginning of the poem there are religious undertones Coleridge uses words like bended knee and reverential to highlight a religious belief and perhaps a plea to God to cure the “Pains of Sleep” this is interesting as he seems to feel “humbled” by the spirit presence. He mentions being weak but realises he is blest by this power. The religious undertone suggests to me a feeling of utter helplessness.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge uses nature as a catalyst to search deeper into his mind and discover the surreal creativity of his own imagination. "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" depicts an out-of-body vision that encompasses a breathtaking vista of green mountains and purple flowers from the eyes of an imaginer. Gazing at it "with swimming sense," the picture becomes "less gross than bodily," causing the swirling colors to form something only found in the divine. However surreal this picture is, nothing can compare to Cloleridge's vision in "Kubla Khan." In this poem he uses nature's creations to depict unnatural scenes. In "caverns measureless to man," Kubla Khan wants to build a "sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice." Such a place is only real in the imagination and in the written word, which is why this poem seems so tangible to the eye. He comes across these imaginary visions while "meandering with a mazy motion through wood and dale," where these thoughts come alive. It explains through alliteration how walking through wooded paths, accompanied only by one's mind, one comes upon new feelings and thoughts that are only palpable in that wood. Nature inspires Samuel Coleridge to exorcise his mind's eye and create a heavenly atmosphere.

In “Kubla Khan,” Coleridge expresses his desire to use the inspirations from nature to create his own “Paradise” of poetry (54, p.1634). In the first stanza, Coleridge creates an exotic oriental garden, where the trees, gardens, hills, and the “Alph” river, together present the beauty of Mother Nature (3, p.1633). Here, the poet carefully

He also states about the ‘wintry bed’, which is meant to show his mood in the poem.

Although there is no consistent syntax, rhyme, or meter in Kubla Khan, the poem begins its journey through the mind in a conscious and calculating manner. The first four lines of the poem, in fact, appear to almost directly derive from a passage of Purchas’s Pilgrimage, as the narrative voice slowly drifts into a dreamlike state. Coleridge’s paraphrasing of a relatively accessible, published piece of literature seems to provide the narrator with a solid foundation to build his seemingly inaccessible poem upon.