Kubla Khan Essay

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Kubla Khan In terms of creativity, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" stands head and shoulders over many other poems. An analysis of the work in terms of poetic devices begs the question: was the poem written in bursts of emotional and sensual outpourings? Or was it the result of careful thought and construction? In answering this question, this paper begins with a reader’s emotional response to "Kubla Khan", and continues with more careful and considered reflections on the poem. “Kubla Khan” provides interesting uses of poetic devices to convey a rich tantalizing overall impression. Take, for example, the author's use of imagery. Through the use of luxurious descriptors and rapidly changing scenes the reader is rapidly transported from exotic image to image throughout the poem. In no less than fifty-four lines, the reader is presented with image after image, from “a stately pleasure dome” to “a sunless sea”, “an incense bearing tree” to “sunny spots of greenery”, “an Abyssinian maid” to “that sunny dome”, “those caves of ice” to “His flashing eyes, his floating hair!”. The more faint hearted of us wish to cry out “Enough! Enough! Slow down!". However, there are those of us who hunger for more of this rich mental feast, and "Kubla Khan" does not disappoint. Not only does Coleridge flood readers' visual senses with fantastic images, he juxtaposes his visions so that the visions themselves appear more vibrant. Just as black is more black when juxtaposed with white, a “dome” seems more full of sun when it has “caves of ice”. In addition, a “poet’s delight” is infinitely more intriguing when its intensity is such that it causes visitors to “pull back in dread”. Perhaps the imagery is too rich and too intense; some critics say that "Kubla Khan" is a poem about a poet who is driven to madness through visions that are at once too numerous, too fantastic and
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