For Friday:
Coleridge, Kubla Khan (pp.105)
Step One: Read
the poem aloud. Really. Read it aloud, even more than once. You need to hear
your own voice. You might even want to record
yourself, and then play it back and
hear yourself reading the poem. You can listen to someone else read it online
(You tube, etc.) but you should read it as well.
Step Two: Answer
Two of the following questions and bring them to class on Friday. Answer in a short paragraph--a few sentences each. Be specific!
Q1: Discuss the
sounds of this poem—not just the rhymes, but also the sounds inside the lines.
What kinds of sounds and repetitions does Coleridge create in this poem? What
is the rhyme scheme, and where does he use assonance (repetition of vowel
sounds), consonance (repetition of consonant sounds), alliteration (repetition of
a single letter at the beginning of words), or other devices? Focus on one or
two that you notice.
Q2: Discuss the
metaphors he employs in the poem: how does he make us see and experience this ‘sublime’
spectacle? What does he compare it to? Why are these metaphors effective for
the reader?
Q3: This poem
seems to be in two parts, the second part beginning on page 106 with the line “A
damsel with a dulcimer…” How do these
two parts of the poem relate to each other? Are they two separate
poems/thoughts? Or is this a contintuation of the “story” or mood of the poem?
Q4: Coleridge claimed that this poem came to him in an opium trance, and he merely wrote it down the second he woke up. While this is probably an author’s gimmick, how does he try to preserve the sense of a ‘dream’ in this poem? Why would this poem strike readers expecting an ordered, logical poem as something strange, disturbing, or even schizophrenic?
Aimee Elmore
ReplyDelete3. The second part of the poem does at first seem to be different at first. The tone seems to change to me it gets lighter but then as you read it gets back to being dark. To me it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the poem.
4. The poem is very had to follow and understand. Dreams are like that. They are confusing and hard to follow. It seems like he jumps around and does not really know what he wants to say. Some of the lines seem to connect but then some do not.
Good responses, but (I bet you've heard me say this before!) don't be afraid to be more specific. When something is hard to follow, show us why/where. Examine something specific to bring these details out. You're on the right track, but make sure I can see why you 'see' these qualities.
DeleteQ1: In lines 15-24, the words seem to take on the "sound" of the rushing river he is describing. The words flow together easily, and speech becomes quick and powerful as the lines progress, as found in these few lines from the poem: "A might fountain momently was forced:/ amid whose swift half-intermitted burst/ Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,/ or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail" (lines 19-22). I think Coleridge's idea here was not so much to simply illustrate the river, but to send the reader plunging into its powerful current.
ReplyDeleteQ4: He worked hard to include details that make this dream something from the supernatural. He used the word 'sacred' over and over again to describe the river, making it almost other-wordly. I think the concept of a sacred river running "through caverns measureless to man/ down to a sunless sea" (lines 4-5) is not only hard to imagine, but I find it to be a very dark, in both a literal and metaphorical sense. It's easy for me to see why many people would have been confused or even a little worried by the poem.
Great responses--those are wonderful lines to focus on, since they have exactly that effect in the poem. Great readings.
DeleteThis is my third attempt at responding--my computer restarted and started updating with no warning while I was typing this morning and it is still updating now. So if I have typos, blame the fact that I'm on my phone.
ReplyDeleteQ1. It wasn't until I listened to a video recording of the poem that I realized how I was supposed to be reading the poem. I needed that help to see that the beginning is slow and steady and mid poem he speeds up the tempo and he represents what his poem is about. In first half, we see bits of trees, forests, greenery, and naturally beautiful scenes. By the middle of the poem he speaks of haunted scenes and demon lovers and hail and not-so-beautiful scenes. It seems Coleridge is making his poem represent itself through the tempo.
Q4. I think the poem is dreamlike in its descriptions--he is seeing the visuals of it from places you wouldn't see in person. Almost like he sees it from a plane.
Remember that there's no one right (or wrong) way to read it, as long as you're paying attention to the words and the rhythm, and are thinking about it as you go. I like the idea of seeing it from a plane...where specifically do you see that? Always give one specific detail rather than a good, but more vague, response. This will help me 'see' your ideas more clearly.
Delete1.) One thing I noticed about the beginning of the poem is - much as we discussed in class - the wording of it. While Coleridge opted to say "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/a stately pleasure-dome decree:" over "Kubla Khan decreed there be a pleasure-dome erected in Xanadu," I still feel there are many reasons for this. One of the biggest is the fluidity the first, original line offers as opposed to the second. The second one, while making more grammatical sense by defining the subject and object soundly, does not fit with the sort of fantastical element we receive from the poem. Also, while the rhyme scheme seems scattered upon first glance, once the reader gets ahold of it, it sounds more musical and whimsical. This, I feel, fits the theme of the poem nicely, since it is within a (drug-induced) dream state.
ReplyDelete3.) While the second part of the poem doesn't necessarily seem to "fit" with the first part of it, I think there are a couple reasons why it could actually work. First, within a dreaming state, the storyline the dreamer is experiencing is prone to shift from one idea to another at any given second. This is not something easily translated onto paper because it is a little too abstract. However, despite the sudden shift, we accept the new reality we are experiencing as though it were always there. So, when the second part comes into play, I almost feel as if it could be that shift in thought. However, once we get to the warning at the end, that also makes it seem as though it is more conscious. It could be that he woke up, or his dreaming state became a bit more lucid.
Excellent responses--I like how clearly you articulate why the poem makes you read it as you do. The poem is an artful attempt to sound chaotic, or disordered. It's really very controlled and logical, but you have to think about it and read it a few times to see it. Coleridge's genius is that he seems most mad when he's the most sane.
Delete1.) One thing I noticed about the beginning of the poem is - much as we discussed in class - the wording of it. While Coleridge opted to say "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/a stately pleasure-dome decree:" over "Kubla Khan decreed there be a pleasure-dome erected in Xanadu," I still feel there are many reasons for this. One of the biggest is the fluidity the first, original line offers as opposed to the second. The second one, while making more grammatical sense by defining the subject and object soundly, does not fit with the sort of fantastical element we receive from the poem. Also, while the rhyme scheme seems scattered upon first glance, once the reader gets ahold of it, it sounds more musical and whimsical. This, I feel, fits the theme of the poem nicely, since it is within a (drug-induced) dream state.
ReplyDelete3.) While the second part of the poem doesn't necessarily seem to "fit" with the first part of it, I think there are a couple reasons why it could actually work. First, within a dreaming state, the storyline the dreamer is experiencing is prone to shift from one idea to another at any given second. This is not something easily translated onto paper because it is a little too abstract. However, despite the sudden shift, we accept the new reality we are experiencing as though it were always there. So, when the second part comes into play, I almost feel as if it could be that shift in thought. However, once we get to the warning at the end, that also makes it seem as though it is more conscious. It could be that he woke up, or his dreaming state became a bit more lucid.