KUBLA KHAN By Samuel Taylor Coleridge Done by Derek Antaky, Nick Fazzolari and Matt Vogel

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Born in 1772 in Ottery St. Mary on October 21, 1772. He was the youngest of ten children. His parents weren’t married and he lost his father when he was only ten years old. After his sister died, Coleridge was rather ill and started to use opium. This would be an addiction he would have for life. Coleridge and William Wordsworth wrote Lyrical Ballads, which is considered the start of the English Romantic Movement. Some of his poems are based on a night were he ran away from home and was later brought back to his house by a neighbor, He showed it in imagery in his poems along with the notebooks he kept throughout his adult life.

KUBLA KHAN Kubla Khan can also be referred to as Vision In a Dream. The poem takes its name from takes its title from the Mongol and Chinese emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty Kubla Khan is not considered a full poem, but rather a fragment because Coleridge didn’t finish it. In the poem there is a word Xanadu, which was made up by Coleridge himself. His poem is considered one of the most famous of the romantic period.

Sex Coleridge’s poem has a lot to due with sexual references. There's a line after he is talking about something in his pants, after that he says “A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail” (line 19-21). Coleridge is most likely having a wet dream. He is telling us something that is bursting from his pants. In his dream he makes it seem like he might be having sex with these demon woman. He also portrays her as the symbol of temptation, sin and hell. Coleridge is willing to risk hell for this woman.

Literary Analysis Coleridge uses nature as a way to show his inner emotions and imaginations. He uses a female’s body as a metaphor for a deceptive comfort that in fact is a miserable hell. In the beginning of this poem, Coleridge talks about how Kubla Khan fulfills his needs by building a “pleasure-dome” (line 2) on “fertile ground” (line 6) that has “sinuous rills” (line 8) and where many trees “blossom” (line 9). Coleridge's imagery describes a garden, but his choice of words also shows physical womanliness.

Continued Analysis He also describes the garden as haunted by woman wailing for her demon-lover” ( line 16). Coleridge associates the dark side of the beautiful garden with women. Kubla Khan discovers that the mystical pleasure dome is imperfect and hides a profane center. Kubla Khan aspires to break eternal rules by pronouncing heaven on earth, whereas the reign of the dominating figure of the last part of the poem is a legitimate one and remains unchallenged by dark powers.

Criticism Some common criticism this poem receives is that the two parts of the poem do not flow well. Also that Coleridge was not in his right state of mind when he wrote this poem, and this is the reason it does not make sense to most people.

Bibliography http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/coleridge.html http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/stc.html