Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge successfully illustrates the qualities of imagination in his poem, Kubla Khan, through the sound of words, the creative content and his ability to create and recreate. Coleridge turns the words of the poem into a system of symbols that are suspended in the reader’s mind. Coleridge uses creative powers to establish the infinite I AM, a quality of the primary imagination. Coleridge mirrors his primary and secondary imagination in the poem by taking apart and recreating images. The qualities of imagination discussed in the poem exist independently but also work together to create an imaginative world.

There were few things to impress themselves upon the Egyptian mind; their psychological impact however was immense. There was the Nile itself, source of all life, there was the mysterious regularity of the Sun, Moon and stars; there was fertility and death. It was out of fear and mystery of these things that "...the Egyptians made their complex heirachy of Gods, and their strange religion. In the service of that religion they made their architecture" (Romer: 75,1982). Thus, the art and architecture of Ancient Egypt stemmed directly from their religion.

Michelangelo used the Greek belief of perfect beauty and the newly emerging realistic viewpoint on art to create an image of a near god-like beauty. From the works of both Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, Renaissance art heavily relied on Greek beauty, to portray their messages across on idealization and portrayed divinity in biblical art. Ancient Greece is where the search for human beauty began. Exploring symmetrical and ideological perfections on human features, with reference to the Golden Ratio enabled the Greeks to answer what beauty was. Plato, born into an Athenian family in the golden age of Greek democracy, strived to elaborate the idea of Forms which originated from Hereclitus’ statement, “all things accessible to the senses are always in a state of flux.” Expanding from the idea of Forms, Plato questioned beauty, “What is beauty?

William Blake, a poet that strongly believed in the power of mind, once wrote, "if we see with imagination, we see all things in the infinite." The Romantic poets use their imagination when gazing at nature, and therefore see and feel the infinite through their poetry. William Wordsworth expresses the serene beauty that nature possesses and its calming effects on the mind. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the poetic geniuses of the age, uses nature and his imagination to create surreal atmospheres. Another Romantic poet, by the name of Percy Bysshe Shelley, shows great longing for the freedom that nature possesses and the freeing effect it has on him.

Another important theme of the poem is that of good versus evil. The vocabulary used throughout the poem helps convey these themes in images to the reader. In the first two lines, Coleridge describes the ‘pleasure dome’ in Xanadu. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree Kubla Khan did not merely order, but decree that a ‘stately pleasure dome’ be built. This dome is evidence of how unnatural the place of Xanadu is, it has a ruler who ignores the unpleasantness that can be found in life.

Sensuality, Sexuality, and Fertility in “Kubla Khan” In “Kubla Khan,” Coleridge imagines a land where sensuality, sexuality, and fertility abound and share inextricable links. Any threats to the fecundity of the land exist outside of its magnificent walls. Coleridge uses this image of an impenetrable fortress of sexual creativity in considering his own mind, desiring the same productivity in his poetic imagination. By creating this connection, Coleridge finds both a source of inspiration and blurs the lines between the poet and the poem. Coleridge describes Xanadu as a land where pleasure is a virtue, by both direct statement and appealing to the senses.

The poet carefully observes his surroundings. Xanadu is described more romantically in the second stanza. The poet describes his own vision and power of imagination that comes only from a successful poet. 'Kubla Khan' describes in two parts. The first, describes Xanadu as if poet is actually there, experiencing the place.

Coleridge's Kubla Khan and the Process of Creativity Coleridge's " Kubla Khan" is an extremely enchanting poem which is based around the 'stately pleasure dome' of the emperor, Kubla Khan. Although the poem is set around this pleasure dome, it can be noticed that the poem had profound depth to it. If one is able to understand the hidden symbols and meanings within the poem, it becomes clear that Coleridge's " Kubloa Khan" does not simply describe a pleasure dome, it is also a prolonged metaphore for the process of creativity. From the immediate start of the poem, the reader finds themselves subjected to interprete these hidden symbols. ' In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree; Where Alph, the sacred river ran' Although this passage seems straight forward, it contains the essential first three symbols of which the entire poem is based upon. '

(43-46) As we look at line 46, “The passion and the life, whose fountains are within,” Coleridge indicated this line of poetry was symbolized with finding passion and life through the imagination of the fountains within us, which is connected to God. William Wordsworth, a famous romantic poet, used imagination throughout his poetry. Also he believes, Imagination comes from within the mind. Wordsworth describes that the cruelty people see is not what we saw as a small child, it is what we see when we are older. As a child, we see a princess movie we either want to be a princess (girls), or a knight (boys).

Creation of the heavens and the earth in Genesis is quite different. God split the waters and forms a firmament in between the waters. He called this firmament heaven. The author of Genesis tells how God created earth. The author says, “God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so.” In the Enuma Elish, heaven and earth are c... ... middle of paper ... ...n. It is a polytheistic myth, and the Babylonian’s were polytheistic.