Kubla Khan, or A Vision in a Dream.
A Fragment.
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.
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 !
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 long,
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.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Everyone answer both prompts. Don't look at anyone else's answer before writing your answer to the first prompt.
1. What does this poem sound like? Supply a simile (for example, "It sounds like a nursery rhyme" or "it sounds like someone walking on crutches" or "it sounds like a parrot squawking." Try to be accurate to you own experience. Don't worry about being thought outlandish.
2. What are the five single most important words in this poem, in your opinion? After listing them, explain why in the case of ONE of the words.
A Fragment.
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.
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 !
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 long,
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.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Everyone answer both prompts. Don't look at anyone else's answer before writing your answer to the first prompt.
1. What does this poem sound like? Supply a simile (for example, "It sounds like a nursery rhyme" or "it sounds like someone walking on crutches" or "it sounds like a parrot squawking." Try to be accurate to you own experience. Don't worry about being thought outlandish.
2. What are the five single most important words in this poem, in your opinion? After listing them, explain why in the case of ONE of the words.
19 comments:
Hey Everyone,
It seems like a while since we have last blogged! This is my simile for this poem. It sounds like birds chirping outside in the early morning. In addition it also sounds like the sound of water rushing down a stream, calming and soothing.
My five words include: Chasm, chaffy, dulcimer, athwart, and tumult. I hope I am explaining this correctly, but the word athwart is particularly important because of the way the poets choice of words. Rather than just saying across the poet decides to use the word athwart. It is an interesting choice for his use of his words.
I can wait to read others thoughts of the poem! Have a GREAT rest of the weekend!
I think it sounds like my granddad reading me a story outside on the porch during a thunderstorm, while drinking lemonade.
My five words are:
revive
mighty- in the ccase of a poem it is describing the fountain and how it is not ordinary, but it is powerful, and violent.
measureless
blossomed
demon-lover
1.This poem sounds like a waterfall.
My five words.
1.Breathing
2.turmiol
3.Scared
4.Measureless
5.Paradise- This word was used at the ending of the poem which is why I think that the word "Paradise" is important.
Somehow, this poem sounds like a washing machine. The flwo of this poem is like the sounds of a washing machine, ga-shing ga-shin.
My five words are measureless, sank, tumult, deep and dome. Tumult is most important as it represents upheaval. Kubla Khan envisions life with happiness, beauty, peace and tranquility; however, in reality, his life is surrounded by turmoil, uproar and darkness.
Hey Guys,
So, when I heard this poem, it sounds like a wave crashing on the surface of the beach, over and over again. The 5 juicy words I found were:
Girdled
Incense-Bearing (That might be 2, but oh well)
Athwart
Meandering
Mingled
Looking forward to hear everyone elses responses!
Mason
1. this poem sounded very choppy and uneven. Kind of like rough wave.
2. -caverns
-dome
-slanted
-measureless
-fast
Out of my five words, I think measureless is the most important because it describes the overall mood of the poem. The impossible boundaries and different heights and landscapes are incapable of being fully known/reached/measured.
Hey guys,
I honestly did not find this poem to be very soothing and calm. Maybe its just the advanced vocabulary or the interesting writing style but i found this poem to be a bit confusing. To me it sounds like an orchestra tuning their instruments on stage. Everybody is tuning different strings at different times, and its hard to hear individuals. Like wise in this poem i felt that this poem was extremely hard to follow. My five words are. Sinuous, Chasm, Demon-Lover, Abyssinian and Paradise. If im not mistaken Abyssinian is a light horse breed. I found it interesting that he reffers to the maid as an abyssinian maid instead of a light haired one. Extremely peculiar choice of words.
Bye
oh hey,
well....It is hard for me to depict what this poem says or sounds like. I feel the initial picture on the page gives me a bias on my imagination's views. However, I view the sacred river and such not as a river but as a person. I see a man who's body leaks with holy essence. The water or stream is not meant in a literal sense but in a metaphoric. His vibe is so powerful and holy that is effects everything around him in a possitive way. The poem sounds as though he, the river, floats through the world, doing nothing but giving.
Part da.........ya so part da I thought the word lifeless is important. Instead of a more obvious word like dead, lifeless really paints a more specific picture in my mind. Also, the word miracle when used to describe a miracle of rare device is nice. Miracle is used to describe when the most impossible occurs, usually in a possitive sense. I like that. Symphony, more than just a song but a work of music. A symphony creates the idea of a masterpiece in it of itself. For my fifth word, I choose to use somewhat of a phrase. Drink the milk of paradise. In that phrase I see milk as important but only due to the word paradise. Milk in it of itself is nothing special. Milk that brings paradise is an unknown. To experience something of that greatness would most likely taste rather good.
Hello!
To me, this poem sounds like a child learning to play a song on the piano. The rhythm was fairly basic, but at times I felt hesitation or a slight glitch in the flow of it. It reminded me of a young child just learning a new song on the piano, playing a “sing song-y” tune, but in a kind of choppy way as he made mistakes or hit a wrong note.
I don't really know why I thought that. Maybe because I wasn't all that talented at the piano when I was young, and that is probably what I sounded like when I tried to play... :)
My 5 words are: measureless, enchanted, ceaseless, fragments, and lifeless.
I feel like they are all descriptive and essential to the imagery of the poem, but I will explain why I chose measureless. I chose it because it shows the enormity or surreal quality of something. There are few words that can so powerfully describe something that seems indescribable. There is almost a sense of hopelessness about it, as if the goal of measuring (the caverns) will never be reached.
Good night! :)
To me, this poem sounds like a dangerous adventure into a fantasy world like the one through Lewis Carol's looking glass.
my five words-
1) Pleasure-dome
2) savage
3) waning
4) device
5) chasm- This word sounds important to me because the poet repeated it and it is a strange and unique sounding word which stands out when you read it twice. I also think that the words "pleasure dome" are important as they are repeated and are very descriptive as they explain the place the poet is describing as a whole.
Hakuna Matata.
Kubla Khan sounds like an epic adventure, like those we used to have as children, for some of us just recently, for others a fair bit further back in time, with Peter Pan and Wendy, through the stars and islands of Neverland. Where each turn holds a surprise that still surprises us despite the fact we know a surprise awaits around the corner.
5 words= romance, savage, thresher's flail, prophesying, Beware!
These words all are what make the adventure of Xanadu so epic and exciting.
Oh yeah, Romance to me is the most important because it epitomizes that feeling of a romantic adventure in a far away land where the hidden treasure lays but a few steps away if only you knew the secret "abra cadabra" "open sesame" code! Where the beautiful damsel in distress risks the temptations of the evil sorcerer as you struggle against his evil minions and eventual that night on the Empire State Building looking out across the most beautiful skyline in the world with the girl of your dreams is fulfilled. That's when romance means something so much more than anything you could possibly fathom.
The poem sounds like a wheel on a wagon turning over and over again on gravel, with an occasional jolt or bump hear and there.
5 words: Xanadu, Chaffy, Maxy, Measureless, Demon-lover
1.To me this poem sounded like a Eulogy that was very descriptive and utilized a lot of imagery. I felt the person writing this was looking upon fondly and not so fondly but with much interest.
2.Measureless
Romantic
Demon
Lover
War
I want to focus not just on one word but on the contrast of two words. In the poem the author uses the words "demon" and 'Lover" like this: "demon-lover." I find this very intriguing, because Demon is in my head a negative word- something full of terror and hurtful notions. And the word "lover" to me is a word full of lust, joy, and comfort. It just seems like putting these words together is ironic. Yet in a way I think they balance each other out. That from one end of the spectrum to another the only place they could meet is the middle. Is this to suggest that all this man is, is ordinary? Or does it mean he is both things at the same time?
Hey Everyone,
The first one to me sounds like when my mom used to walk me in my stroller and tell me stories of her child hood. It also reminds my of the smell of poppy's becuase they lined my childhood street.
For the second one the five words I found were: symphony, singing, cave, flashing and floating. I believe that symphony is probably the most unique wod in this sentance. It's talking about this persons persona. I believe this word brings to the mind such imagery and imagination.
Hello.
The poem sounds like a small stream, slowly trickling and cascading off the faces of rocks down the side of a mountain.
* I would like to make a note I don't think the poem sounds like a stream just because it talks about a river. I came to this conclusion after paying attention to the rhythm of the poem and the flow of the words, not what the words actually meant.
Sinuous
Chasm
Savage
Vaulted
Paradise
*Vaulted reminds me of water cascading over rocks and other debris. Vaulting in the sense bring about comparisons to "throwing" or "bouncing" and when I think of water in a stream, I feel like water is shaped and formed in quick movements, bouncing and throwing itself this way and that, and vaulting reminds me of this movement.
Thanks
Pall thinks:
It sounds like a washing machine with an unbalanced load.
Pall also think:
The five most important words are holy, sunny, shadow, pleasure, and dome.
I would say that dome is the the most important word in this poem because it appears so many times, but with different adjectives. Dome also seems to be on of the main subjects of the poem.
Okay so I've been trying to post this from my phone all weekend...but it hasn't worked.
To me it seems like a slow moving tornado. Not a really violent one, but one encompassing a vast amount of things as it moves slowly, drawing more and more things into it with its strength and power.
I also see how the river used in the poem describes the way the poem feels like. It is as if there are many rocks and crashes of the water and then it goes through calmer spots. Kind of like the eye of a tornado.
My words are:
Chasm
Sacred
Turmoil
Mighty
Fragment
Paradise
I think that sacred is important because it means that there is great value being talked about. Not monetary value but an internal value , something sacred and important to others.
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