- Oct 2024
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dread
Do you see the poem as a celebration of creativity or a warning about potential hard truths one might come across during the creative process?
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thresher’s flail:
Have you ever experienced this violent type of creativity where you were very inspired to create something?
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Ancestral voices prophesying war!
Inevitable conflict due to human nature. Humans are meant to destroy, but he has to try to rise above to create something beautiful - his creation.
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measureless
Larger than life - makes it seem like something more than one could possibly imagine.
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And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
Power he achieves when creating.
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For he on honey-dew hath fed And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Describes the transcendent experience of being all consumed within your creativity.
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I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
After wrestling with himself, he gets his confidence and inspiration back.
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Could I revive within me
Questions his own skill to revive what exists in his mind. Shows introspective nature of this stanza.
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In a vision once I saw:
Elusiveness of vision - not with him anymore in its full form
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A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
Another contradiction to illustrate the complex reality of his creativity.
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Floated midway on the waves;
The deep true poetic vision he wants to create will never be perfect and is always trying to run.
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The sha
Shift to more quiet tone
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flung up momently the sacred river.
Coleridge plays between moments of stasis and intense movement. It relates to his creative process by saying that sometimes you don't know what to do, while others, it is clear what direction you should be heading.
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wailing for her demon-lover!
You need to embrace your 'demons' to access your full creative potential.
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savage place! as holy and enchanted
Contradiction between his words illustrates how his creativity is not straightforward and even he can't fully describe the ways his mind works.
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But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
This stanza is characterized by a driving energy with lots of exclamation points and words with movement 'savage', 'ceaseless turmoil seething', 'thresher's flail'
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sunless sea
Represents the mystery of this place and how it can't be fully understood. Could be mapped to the subconscious part of his imagination.
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sacred river,
Spiritual aspect to this place in his imagination.
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twice 5 miles of fertile ground
emphasis on the idyllic nature of this place.
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Xanadu
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“Kubla Khan” by Coleridge
Colridge's poem is inspired by an opium trip and a dream where he imagines an ancient city founder by Emporer Kublai Khan.
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