Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Question about this poem? Ask us. The second theme is of the man and his significance in the natural world as depicted by Kubla Khan himself. The concept of time as well as the permanence of art, too are its other thematic strands presented by Coleridge.
These devices bring richness and clarity to the text. Although most of the poetic devices share the same qualities with literary devices, there are some which can only be used in poetry.
The analysis of some of the poetic devices is given below. They would then think of him as a mighty magician and would ask others to be cautious of his flashing eyes and floating hair.
They would weave a circle around him three times and close their eyes with holy dread. Furthermore, they would say that he had been fed on honey-dew and the Milk of Paradise and warn one another to keep away from him. Kubla Khan is an edifice of the dream or vision of the poet about a grand palace of a famous ruler of China and its magical surroundings. It looks like a procession of images, images colored in rainbow tints and expressed in the language of hunting melody.
The poem also seems to have no story, no moral, no allegory, and nor even any logical consistency of ideas. However, Kubla Khan is rational as well as logical. Both of its parts are connected to each other in a logical way. The poem is rich in symbolism, imagery, pictorial quality, and romantic elements.
It is, in fact, a poem of pure romance, in which all the romantic associations—ancient forests, hills, measureless caverns, music of dulcimer, Milk of Paradise, demon-lover—are concentrated within a short compass to create a sense of mystery and awe. Besides, the poem also stands by the sheer beauty of its shadowy vision, and by the power of its wonderful music.
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a poem about life and its complexities. The pleasure dome, indeed, dominates the poem. Besides, the setting of the poem is also carefully and vividly described by the poet. The area through which it flows is, however, full of beautiful gardens, aromatic trees, winding streams, and ancient forests. In the poem, the river symbolizes life. Here the poem evokes supernatural elements. The river in its origin so beautifully blends the sacred, romantic, and demonic suggestions.
This part of the poem evokes mystery and awe by blending romance with savage and demonic with sacred. Whereas, the pleasure-dome is a symbol of the materialistic nature of man around which his life symbolized by a river revolves before falling down into a sunless sea. Then, the river flows in a zigzag manner which refers to the complexities of human life. So, the river is a metaphor of life, the birth-death time stream.
The tumult can also be such principles and forces that drive man to his end. The dome of the palace rises high up to the glare of the sun.
Its top is warm in sunshine, while its ground-floors are like caves of ice. Though, human beings are physically gleaming, but inside they are spiritually dead and cold hearted. This cold-heartedness gives rise to destructive forces such as war. Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is also a poem about poetic potentialities. The first part of the poem is a transcript of the vision so far as the waking mind retained it.
The poet presents the pleasure-dome and the river with all its mesmerizing setting. While the second part of the poem is an attempt to realize the vision to give it a concrete form. It describes the act of poetic creation and the ecstasy of imaginative fulfilment. The name "Alph" might also make us think of the Greek letter "Alpha" which is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and a symbol of beginnings.
These associations, and the fact that the river has a name at all, really make the Alph stand out in the beginning of this poem. Notice how Coleridge is already stepping away from history: he is transforming this place, this person, and this story into his own creation. If this is partly an imaginary landscape, how does the poem's speaker make it look and feel? When he talks about "caverns measureless to man" we get a sense that this landscape is both huge and unknowable.
That slightly spooky feeling continues when we get to the "sunless sea. It also gives us a sense of being in an imaginary landscape, because where else could a sea always be "sunless" and never bright or cheerful, or any of the other things a sea can be? Also, check out how much shorter line 5 is than all the others. In a poem where all the lines have a carefully planned length, short lines stand out and make us take notice.
It makes this image just a little lonelier. It also makes this line into more of a dead end, a stopping place, just like the sea is for the River Alph. Lines So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
0コメント