Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge By Kevin Mo, Nate Christie, Dan Brunner, and Ashita Vadlamudi Period - 11

2. Anticipatory Activity • Charades • 3 Volunteers • 2 minutes per word

3. Biography (1772-1834) • Poet, literary critic, and philosopher • Youngest of thirteen kids • Suffered from anxiety and depression • Influenced Emerson and the transcendentalist movement • Addicted to opium, resulted in lifelong health problems • Along with William Wordsworth, he helped found the Romantic Movement in England • Became a religious philosophical thinker • Wished to create a pantisocracy in the US • A utopia based on completely equal rule

4. How is he a Romantic? • He writes in blank verse, often without punctuation between lines, and this emphasizes the Romantic ideal of emotion. • His poems include an element of mystery, dream quality, humanitarianism, and of course his love for nature. • His poems also illustrate his imagination of a world beyond the control of reason where everything is mysterious and magical.

5. Notable Works • Rime of the Ancient Mariner • Kubla Khan • To Nature • Christabel

6. Premise of "Kubla Khan" (Pg 825) • While taking opium, he has a dream about Xanadu, the summer palace of Kublai Khan. • Essentially, he depicts the magical place that he dreams about. It is filled with mystery and is grandiose in nature.

7. Kubla Khan - Part 1 In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

8. Discussion Questions - Part 1 • Do the place and person described in this first stanza seem real or imaginary to you? • Give examples of the imagery that Coleridge. uses to describe grandiose nature of Xanadu • How is the palace of Xanadu described as a protected and encased place?

9. Kubla Khan - Part 2 But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!

10. Discussion Questions - Part 2 1. How does Coleridge show the power of the river Alph? 2. Coleridge states that the river empties into a "Lifeless Ocean". This expression is parallels which phrase in the first stanza. 3. Give some examples of the personification that Coleridge uses. What kind of imagery does this create?

11. Kubla Khan - Part 3 Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me That with music loud and lo I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed And drunk the milk of Paradise. The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me

12. Discussion Questions - Part 3 • At what point does there seem to be a shift in the focus of the poem? • What is ironic about "Could I revive within me"? • What could the last five-six lines of the poem be referring to? What could Coleridge be warning the audience of?

13. Premise of "To Nature" • Coleridge tries to learn from nature • The rest of the world does not believe that he can do that; look upon him with disdain • Still he will look upon nature as his god and continue to worship it

14. To Nature (Handout) It may indeed be phantasy when I Essay to draw from all created things Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings; And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie Lessons of love and earnest piety. So let it be; and if the wide world rings In mock of this belief, it brings Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity. So will I build my altar in the fields, And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be, And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee, Thee only God! and thou shalt not despise Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice.

15. Discussion Questions - "To Nature" 1. Identify the use of synecdoche in lines 1-5. 2. Identify uses of imagery and their impact on the poem. 3. What is the tone of the poem and how does it change towards the end?

16. Follow-Up Activity: Crossword (Handout) • This activity quickly reinforces some of the main ideas presented in Coleridge's background and the two poems that were discussed.