The Paradoxes Of Kubla Khan - 1658 Words

The Paradoxes of â€Å"Kubla Khan† The Romantic poem â€Å"Kubla Kahn† by Samuel Taylor Coleridge contains many paradoxes in its description of a certain euphoric scene. Coleridge claimed that he dreamt the poem â€Å"Kubla Kahn† while in an altered state of consciousness due to an opium high. When he went to write it down, he was disrupted in the middle, and as a result was not able to complete the poem. However, when analyzing the poem that resulted, although it may not have been complete, it serves as a great example of romantic literature and the main ideas and notions of the movement. Coleridge’s description of the paradoxical euphoric dream gives way to understanding Coleridge’s philosophies of the human mind and its capabilities, and the truth behind what is real, and along with that, the importance of art to the imagination. These philosophies are exemplar of the Romantic Movement. Romantics believed that meaning is found through the use of one’s imagination to achieve a state of transcendence. They believed that at the heart of nature, mystery lies and that an individual may connect with it through the exploration of his or her emotions and imagination. This is a stark difference from the goals of the Enlightenment thinkers. Enlightenment thinkers encouraged the use of reason as guide for constructive living. Romantics focused on a more passionate, sensual approach to life that relied more on feeling rather than that which only the five senses can detect. This feeling thatShow MoreRelated Imagination in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner versus Kubla Khan973 Words   |  4 Pagestwo works by Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, both works regard the imagination as vitally important. In the Ancient Mariner, the imagination (or rather, the lack of it) condemns the Mariner to a kind of hell, with the fiends of sterility, solitude, and loneliness: â€Å"’God save thee, Ancient Mariner, from the fiends that plague thee thus! Why look’st thou so?’ ‘With my crossbow I shot the Albatross’†. In Kubla Khan, the imagination of an external being, the narrator that ColeridgeRead MoreAspects Of Romanticism1825 Words   |  8 Pagesand enjoyed this new genre. There are many literary figures mentioned who may have seen to write in a Romantic style, however, did not identify with it. In my essay I will focus on â€Å"Casabianca† by Felicia Hemans, â€Å"To a Mouse† by Robert Burns and â€Å"Kubla Khan† by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I believe these poems truly reflect on Romanticism and have many aspects which show how this era’s literature is very distinguishing. These poems are full of emotion, imagery and love for nature. Felicia Hemans’ poetryRead MoreKubla Khan a Supernatural Poem8401 Words   |  34 Pages| AbstractThis essay discusses the question of the transforming creative self and the aesthetics of becoming in Samuel Taylor Coleridge s Kubla Khan and Dejection: An Ode , by reassessing certain strands of Romantic visionary criticism and Deconstruction, which are two major critical positions in the reading and interpreting of Romantic poetry. The poetics of becoming and the creative process place the self in Coleridge s aesthetic and spiritual idealism in what I have called a constructive