In the opening lines of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s paradoxical poem “Kubla Khan,” we see an approach to literacy that is far different than his predecessors. This is partly due to his role as one of the founders of the Romantic Era. Coleridge, along with William Wordsworth, published an anthology of poems entitled “Lyrical Ballads.” This collection was the beginning of an overwhelming movement to praise the power of imagination rather than that of reason. While “Kubla Khan” was not a part of this work, it is still a clear depiction of all of the ideals of Romanticism such as the importance of imagination, nature, emotion and individualism. This poem is also set apart by its untraditional origin. Coleridge claims to have dreamt this poem after indulging himself on opium. This provides ample evidence for the eccentric and psychedelic imagery that is presented throughout the piece as well as the sudden shifts in tone and subject matter. While the credibility of this work has been called into question on several occasions and its meaning is heavily debated, this is without a doubt one of the greatest romantic poems ever written (Sterling).
In the poem’s first stanza, Coleridge begins to describe the ancient city of Xanadu. This was the ancient city in Mongolia from where Kubla Khan ruled his empire. This historically significant introduction gives readers the impression that the poem is grounded in reality. The poem begins its steady transition from realism to imagination, however, when Coleridge refers to the river Alph. While the true identity of the river is unknown, it is believed by many scholars to actually be an allusion to the River Alpheus which was a recurring entity throughout Greek mythology (Shmoop Editorial Team). It is...
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...God. While there are many different views that can be spliced together, I am in total agreement with John Spencer Hill when he says, “it is probably no exaggeration to say that no single interpretation of ‘Kubla Khan’ has ever wholly satisfied anyone except the person who proposed it.” I am confident that the truth of this statement shall ring true forever.
Works Cited
Dea, A. "Poetry." Kubla Khan:Analysis. Bookstove, 06 Jan 2008. Web. 2 Apr 2011. .
Hill , John Spencer. A Coleridge Companion: Interpretive approaches to Kubla Khan. London: Macmillan, 1983. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Kubla Khan." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 06 Apr 2011.
Eric, Sterling. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge."Enlightenment-Revolution. Auburn Montgomery University, 04 Apr 2008. Web. 1 Apr 2011.
...trospectively. The menacing creature that is Genghis Kahn went overboard to gain as much power as he did. His strategies didn’t allow failure. Unfortunately, his success was from a sociopathic standpoint. Every win by Khan, was a loss for all others. (doc D and doc F) The law codes composed by Kahn were ridiculously unjust and ignited insolence in all men. (doc K and doc N) The yam system was the only completely harmless innovation/method created by Kahn. (doc L) Meanwhile, millions of people were still systematically murdered by Genghis and his stupendous army. (doc E and doc I) All but monotheistic religions were practically snubbed. (doc H, doc G, and doc M). The Mongols will always remain the “barbarians,” for if a society were to emerge that, by some supernatural force, exceeds the brazenness of the Mongol Empire, it would be the end of the world as we know it.
Weatherford, J. McIver. Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world. New York: Crown, 2004.
When the word “Mongol” is said I automatically think negative thoughts about uncultured, barbaric people who are horribly cruel and violent. That is only because I have only heard the word used to describe such a person. I have never really registered any initial information I have been taught about the subject pass the point of needing and having to know it. I felt quite incompetent on the subject and once I was given an assignment on the book, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern Age, I was very perplexed for two reasons. One I have to read an outside book for a class that already requires a substantial amount of time reading the text, and secondly I have to write a research paper in History. I got over it and read the book, which surprisingly enough interested me a great deal and allow me to see the Moguls for more than just a barbaric group of Neanderthals, but rather a group of purpose driven warriors with a common goal of unity and progression. Jack Weatherford’s work has given me insight on and swayed my opinion of the Mongols.
Hartog, Leo de. Genghis Khan: Conqueror Of The World. London: Taurisparke Paperbacks, 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
Many people have heard of Genghis Khan, most people know he was a great conqueror, but very little people know of his non-military achievements. With just enough warriors to fill a modern football stadium, Genghis Khan conquered lands from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea. Khan connected Europe and Asia in trade and diplomatic relations when before his time, they had never even heard of each other. Khan improved the political structure, studied science and philosophy, invented investing back into the economy, and improved the education of the common man. Khan was a great warrior, but that was the least of his accomplishments. Khan improved the welfare and quality of life for most people in the known world with his improvements in administrative.
... were positive, one may argue that these individuals only saw the tolerant and fair-minded side of the Mongols, and not the relentless warrior part of the society who was known for its “dirty” tactics of war, which went as far as launching diseased-ridden corpses over the walls of castles during sieges. Alternatively, one may argue that the scholars who provided negative documentation of the Mongols only saw the destructive side, not the open-minded side of the society who were known for their cultural acceptance. Although these accounts allowed for an adequate idea of the nature of the Mongols, a record from a peasant who was not a member of the upper class in their society, as all reports presented were from historians, scholars, and political leaders. This would allow for a different perspective on the issue and would produce a better understanding of the topic.
Hartog, L. D. (2004). Genghis Khan: conqueror of the world (vii ed.). [eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)]. http://dx.doi.org/AN 112269
Kahn, P. (2005). Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan. USA: Cheng & Tsui
Mileur, J. 1982. Coleridge and the Art of Immanence. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
“Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a poem about the creative powers of the poetic mind. Through the use of vivid imagery Coleridge reproduces a paradise-like vision of the landscape and kingdom created by Kubla Khan. The poem changes to the 1st person narrative and the speaker then attempts to recreate a vision he saw. Through the description of the visions of Kubla Khan’s palace and the speaker’s visions the poem tells of the creation of an enchanting beautiful world as the result of power of human imagination. The second part of the poem reveals that although the mind has the ability to create this paradise-like world it is tragically unable to sustain this world.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Kubla Khan.” The Norton Anthology: English Literature. Ninth Edition. Stephen Greenblatt, eds. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 459-462. Print.
Although both “Kubla Khan,” by Samuel Coleridge and “Ode on Grecian Urn,” by John Keats are poems originating from the poets’ inspiration from historical figure, the two poems convey different messages through their respective metaphors. While Coleridge emphasizes on the process of creating a Romantic poem, Keats expresses his opinion about art by carefully examining the details of the Grecian urn.
In two 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: “’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 Coleridge created, the ideal critic, can create a masterpiece that far outstrips the meager piece of work that even the emperor of a huge, rich civilization can produce: “I would build that dome in air, a sunny dome! Those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, and all should cry, Beware! Beware!” In Kubla Khan, the imagination can even make people fear an otherwise inconsequential event, sequence, or organism.
Weatherford, J. McIver. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. New York: Crown, 2004. Print.
Through alliteration and imagery, Coleridge turns the words of the poem into a system of symbols that become unfixed to the reader. Coleridge uses alliteration throughout the poem, in which the reader “hovers” between imagination and reality. As the reader moves through the poem, they feel as if they are traveling along a river, “five miles meandering with a mazy motion” (25). The words become a symbol of a slow moving river and as the reader travels along the river, they are also traveling through each stanza. This creates a scene that the viewer can turn words into symbols while in reality they are just reading text. Coleridge is also able to illustrate a suspension of the mind through imagery; done so by producing images that are unfixed to the r...