Poetic Inspiration in Kubla Khan and Rime of the Ancient Mariner Essay

Poetic Inspiration in Kubla Khan and Rime of the past Mariner An examination of the events that Coleridge presents in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan and the situations in which they find themselves reveals interesting aspects of Coleridges own character that are both quasi(prenominal) to and different from the characters named in the titles of these poems. In particular, an examination of these characters with an eye toward Coleridges conception of poetic inspiration and success can be fruitful. In Kubla Khan, Coleridge depicts a powerful character who did ... a stately pleasure dome decree (Kubla Khan lines 1-2). The fact that Kubla Khan is able merely to decree a pleasure-dome and know that his orders will be executed implies that he is a character of both strong will and great creative power. This faith in himself is not misplaced. The Khan decrees that a pleasure-dome be built and his order is immediately executed So twice five miles of fertile ground/ With walls and towers were girdled round (6-7). Some aspects of the landscape and the dome echo the hardship implied by the chieftains single-minded determination the fountain with ceaseless turmoil seething, the dancing rocks that are tossed into the air by the fountain, the ancestral voices prophesying war, and the fact that the sacred river itself is flung up momentarily by the fountain (18, 23, 30, 24). As the Khans creation, the dome can reasonably be expected to contain clues to his character, and the characterization of the Khan harmonizes well with these clues about his character precondition by the pleasure dome the image of a Mongol chief is one associated with danger, war, and a large amount of strength. ... ... of a broken and essentially flexile force. When seen in these terms, it seems that the mariner may be the image with which Coleridge most closely identified himself, but both are symbols of his creative process. References The Bible. Authorized (King James) T ranslation. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Kubla Khan in Samuel Taylor Coleridge A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. H J. Jackson. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1985. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, in Seven Parts (1798 text) in Romanticism An Anthology, Second Edition. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1998. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In Seven Parts (1817 text) in Samuel Taylor Coleridge A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. H J. Jackson. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1985.