Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
By
Kevin Mo, Nate Christie, Dan Brunner, and Ashita Vadlamudi
Period - 11
Anticipatory Activity
• Charades
o 3 Volunteers
o 2 minutes per word
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
o Wished to create a pantisocracy in the US
 A utopia based on completely equal rule
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.
Notable Works
•
•
•
•
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Kubla Khan
To Nature
Christabel
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.
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.
Discussion Questions Part 1
1. Do the place and person described in this
first stanza seem real or imaginary to you?
2. Give examples of the imagery that
Coleridge. uses to describe grandiose nature
of Xanadu
3. How is the palace of Xanadu described as a
protected and encased place?
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:
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!
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?
Kubla Khan - Part 3
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
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.
Discussion Questions Part 3
1. At what point does there seem to be a shift
in the focus of the poem?
2. What is ironic about "Could I revive within
me"?
3. What could the last five-six lines of the poem
be referring to? What could Coleridge be
warning the audience of?
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
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.
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?
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.