Course Title: Poetry Course Code & NO.: LANE 447Course Instructor: Dr. Fatima Elyas

Presented by: Wafa Al-thibyani

Ibtisam Al-ahmari

Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. Rather, it is an international artistic and philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world.

The early Romantic period thus coincides with what is often called the "age of revolutions"--including, of course, the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions--an age of upheavals in political, economic, and social traditions, the age which witnessed the initial transformations of the Industrial

Revolution .

1785- 1830Romanticism

Characteristics of Romanticism

- The characteristics of Romantic poetry are that it emphasizes feeling, and imagination.

- Others feel that it emphasizes individualism, freedom from rules, spontaneity, solitary life rather then life in society, and the love of beauty and nature.

The main stream of poetry in the eighteenth century had been orderly and polished, without much feeling for nature. Heroic couplets were used for this verse, but various writers had broken away from the form and the thought. In spite of this, the publication of the frits edition of the Lyrical Ballads1 ( 1798 ) came as a shock. The critics considered the language too simple and the change too violent. This important book the signal of the beginning the romantic age -- was the joint work of William Words Worth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, often known with Southey, as the Lake Poets, because they liked the lake district in the north west of England and lived in it.

English Romanticism

English Romanticism

Wordsworth was a poet of nature, and had the special ability to throw a charm over ordinary things. Coleridge, on the other hand, could make mysterious event acceptable to a reader's mind.

Neither of them used the old language of poetry much.

Wordsworth was so filed with the love of nature that, in later editions of the Lyrical Ballads, he said that the language of poetry ought to be the same as the language of a simple farm-worker. yet he could not keep to this idea himself; his imagination led him far beyond the life and thoughts of a countryman.

Coleridge in 1795. He was born on 21 October 1772, in England.

He died on 25 July 1834 , in England.

His occupation was Poet, critic, philosopher.

His Literary movement was Romanticism.

His notable work (s) are The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Kubla Khan.

In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith 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.But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slantedDown the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!A savage place! as holy and enchantedAs e'er beneath a waning moon was hauntedBy woman wailing for her demon-lover!

”Kubla Khan

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 burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up momently the sacred river.Five miles meandering with a mazy motionThrough 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 farAncestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasureFloated midway on the waves;Where was heard the mingled measureFrom the fountain and the caves.It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw:It was an Abyssinian maid,And on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora.Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight 'twould win meThat with music loud and long

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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 fedAnd drunk the milk of Paradise

This poem describes Xanadu, the palace of Kubla Khan, a Mongol emperor and the grandson of Genghis Khan. The poem's speaker starts by describing the setting of Emperor's palace, which he calls a "pleasure dome." He tells us about a river that runs across the land and then flows through some underground caves and into the sea. He also tells us about the fertile land that surrounds the palace. The nearby area is covered in streams, sweet-smelling trees, and beautiful forests. Then the speaker gets excited about the river again and tells us about the canyon through which it flows. He makes it into a spooky, haunted place, where you might find a "woman wailing for her demon lover." He describes how the river leaps and smashes through the canyon, first exploding up into a noisy fountain and then finally sinking down and flowing through those underground caves into the ocean far away.

Explains:

The speaker then goes on to describe Kubla Khan himself, who is listening to this noisy river and thinking about war. All of a sudden, the speaker moves away from this landscape and tells us about another vision he had, where he saw a woman playing an instrument and singing. The memory of her song fills him with longing, and he imagines himself singing his own song, using it to create a vision of Xanadu.

Toward the end, the poem becomes more personal and mysterious, as the speaker describes past visions he has had. This brings him to a final image of a terrifying figure with flashing eyes. This person, Kubla Khan, is a powerful being who seems almost godlike: "For he on honey-dew hath .fed/And drunk the milk of paradise.

Major themes

Theme of Man and the Natural World:

The interaction between man and nature is a major theme for Coleridge. It's painted all over "Kubla Khan," as we go from the dome to the river, and then from the gardens to the sea. Sometimes he's focused on human characters, sometimes on natural forces. In fact, it's difficult to get away from this theme in this poem. Think of this tension as a tug-of war between humans and their temporary constructions (buildings) and the seeming permanence of nature.

Coleridge makes this one easy for us since the subtitle of the poem is "a Vision in a Dream." This poem is meant to make us feel like we are in an alternate reality. We recognize all the objects he describes, but the images he creates move in ways we don't expect. People appear and disappear strangely, just like in a dream or a hallucination. Think of it as a scary Alice in Wonderland.

Theme of Versions of Reality:

Figures of Speech:

Simile

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail (line 21) Comparison of upward thrust of the fragments to that of rebounding hail

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing Comparison of the the earth to a living, breathing thing

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Resources

http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/coleridge/section5.rhtml

http://en.Wikipedia. org/wiki/Romanticism

http://www. enotes. com/kubla-khan-criticism/ckubla-khan- samuel-taylor-coleridge

http://www.online-literature.com/periods/ php