Samuel Taylor Coleridge
First, what are your reactions to Coleridge's poems Frost at Midnight & Kubla Khan? What reactions do they invoke in you? Next, what is different about the poems? If you had to do a side by side comparison or make a Venn diagram of them, what would you include in it? After posting your initial thoughts, return to the blog to respond to your classmates.
Both poems provide strong imagery meant to put the reader in the speaker's place. In "Frost at Midnight" he speaks about the silence and all the sounds that break it such as the quiet owls or the sleeping baby's breaths. Using such quiet noises to interrupt the silence emphasizes just how powerful the silence really was. I take away a peaceful tone from beginning to end of "Frost at Midnight" because the ending is just as beautiful as the beginning. The speakers reveals his hopes for his child, and that they are going to be better than his. He will live a peaceful life no matter what season it is. "Kubla Khan" started with a beautiful image of the "deep romantic chasm" only to later read that it's only in the imagination. The tone shifted immensely from the beginning and that is shown through the diction. The first couple of stanzas used words like "pleasure," "blossomed," and "enchanted" to describe the image that was in the mind. The ending showed a different tone by using words like "cry," "beware," and the "sunny dome" becoming "caves of ice." Though starting with a peaceful tone like "Frost at Midnight," "Kubla Khan" does not give me the same peaceful ending.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. Frost at Midnight gave me such peace and tranquility as I read on while Kubla Khan set off my fight or flight.
DeleteIn "Frost at Midnight", I noticed not only the heavy use of imagery, but also the use of diction alluding to sounds and noises. At some points it was as if I could truly hear the "loud" sounds described by the narrator. This piece provides a rather soothing and peaceful tone, especially with the help of terms such as "tender", "sweetly", and "peacefully". In the final stanza, a beautiful and calming ending is provided. It left me satisfied with how the poem developed and finished out, as well as rater calm. Like "Frost at Midnight", "Kubla Khan" was developed through elaborate imagery. However, the tone was much different in this poem. Rather than peaceful and wholesome, "Kubla Khan" created a sense of dread and anxiety within me as I read. With phrases and words such as "woman wailing for her demon-lover", "seething", and "beware", I can't help but feel stressed. Unlike "Frost at Midnight", the ending was rather painful instead of calming and peaceful. If I were to place both in a Venn Diagram, I would put the strong sensory details in the center and the different tones in their respective sides.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I felt as though "Kubla Khan" caused a feeling of tension and nervousness with the use of certain phrases. It was still strong sensory detail, but he used it to push a different tone, contrary to "Frost at Midnight."
DeleteFor me, his style of writing is lulling in a sense. In "Frost at the Midnight," his way of describing the silence and the various things that disturb it enunciated how silent it really was, like Sydney said. It was comforting and soothing, and it was more heartwarming to also know from the background that he craved the sense of comfort; it felt like he wrote the feeling he craved the most. In "Kubla Khan," the sense was the same but also not. The sensory details were carried through to this poem as well, but the way they were used was somewhat different. Instead of a peaceful night with positive diction, this one was on the opposing spectrum. Considering Kubla Khan's history, it was a warning of how his ambition would cause negative effects, I felt. Towards the end of his life, he was dethroned and had many familial losses which lead to him becoming overweight and developing gout, along with having caused deep rooted resentment in China, so I thought this was interesting. The lure of having a large empire and the deep sensory detail essentially covered up the evil it presented.
ReplyDeleteI agree that his writing style is lulling. I think those negative effects are portrayed in the weird ending of "Kubla Khan" where he is talking about opposing ideas.
DeleteI noticed that "Frost at the Midnight" had a flowing, dreamy quality to it, and in stark comparison, "Kubla Khan" was pretty much all endstop. Also, "Frost at the Midnight" was in iambic pentameter while "Kubla Khan" was in iambic tetrameter with an occasional line of iambic pentameter. Could it be that Kubla was written while influenced by drugs? The meter shifts between the tetrameter and pentameter. Also the second stanza has an extra half foot or whatever they are called. Kubla had a really off-kilter feel to me and I think the inconsistent meter gave it that feeling. Frost, on the other hand, had a lot of enjambment and consistent meter (I actually didn't check a ton b/c it's really long) and it contributed to the flowing and stable feeling it gave. For similarities, I'd say both poems had strong imagery and a dream-like quality; however, Kubla is one of those weird unsettling dreams unlike Frost.
ReplyDeleteI agree! There was a lot of strong imagery that was interesting and enjoyable as I read both poems. "Kubla Khan" was definitely different in mood and tone from "Frost at Midnight."
DeleteI agree that Kubla did have an off feeling to it, but I didn't think to contribute meter to that feeling. Same goes for Frost, enjambment definitely would attribute to the flowy aspect of it.
DeleteI really enjoyed both of these poems, but "Kubla Khan" came off more as a nightmare than "Frost at Midnight." Line 25 of "Kubla Khan" stood out to me because it was different than the rest of the poem. It reads ""Five miles meandering with a mazy motion," and it had a lazier quality from the rest. This was suggested through the alliteration of the m's and reflects the flow of the river. In both poems, I noticed that they each appeared to be dreamlike but also held opposing views at certain points as T'nyah pointed out. While the bell is ringing in "Frost at Midnight," it is described with words like "rang" and "haunted" instead of more positive diction that the rest of the poem contains. On the other hand, the bell is also depicted in a positive light with words like "sweetly" and "soothing." Additionally, in "Kubla Khan," the flow of the river is discussed with negative diction like a "chasm" with "ceaseless turmoil seething." However, it it later described in a way that gives a sense of laziness that I previously mentioned. Each poem contains lots of sensory details and alliteration that gives them a musical quality. In contrast, "Frost at Midnight" reminds me of a lullaby, and "Kubla Khan" reminds me of a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteThe laziness you mentioned isn’t something I took into account when writing my response but it’s completely true! When something’s written in a way that sounds relaxed and lazy, it comes across as very comfortable and relaxing to read, whereas some of the darker details of a more alarming piece can set the reader on edge so they feel especially uncomfortable.
DeleteFrost Midnight and Kubla Khan both utilize very strong imagery to convey an emotional response in the reader. Frost Midnight leans heavily on imagery conveying peaceful scenes in nature as well as the portion directed to the infant. When addressing a child, the immediate connotation is one of hope and excitement for the possibilities ahead; any decent human being looks at a baby and wishes it to have all the joys the world can offer. This is largely due to the association of innocence that we feel towards children. This paired with all of the natural imagery paints a very content picture in the reader’s mind. Kubla Khan, on the other hand, takes this delicate eye for detail and twists it so that the result is very uncomfortable. Though Coleridge still uses intricate details and beautiful diction to describe his dream-like scene, it has a darker edge to it that makes the whole thing entirely too alarming. The sensory details such as the “woman wailing for her demon-lover” show the reader that the scene is kinda demented in its way. It reminded me almost of a Tim Burton movie like Coraline; if you don’t think about it too hard, you can say it’s a pretty poem and leave it at that, but the second you catch on to the concerning details, it’s hard not to see it as some twisted nightmare.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Both poems use their imagery and diction to cause an emotional response, but each poem causes different emotions. I also agree with Kubla Khan seeming to be just a pretty poem when you don't notice the more alarming details.
DeleteLike everyone else has said so far, the use of imagery in the stands out and I really like how he uses the imagery. The diction that he uses in each poem helps you feel what the speaker feels. In "Frost at Midnight" the diction, coupled with the imagery of the nature outside and Coleridge's infant child sleeping softly at his side, helps create a tranquil and content atmosphere. Plus, Coleridge's desire for his child to live a better life than him is pure and that purity is reflected in the poem. "Kubla Khan," on the other hand, uses the imagery and the diction to create a different tone. The descriptions at the beginning create a grand, beautiful image; but later on in the poem, mentions of things such as a "woman wailing for her demon-lover" and "Ancestral voices prophesying war" create a more ominous, foreboding tone. Then there is the ending of each poem. Like Sydney mentioned, "Frost at Midnight" offers a peaceful ending that implies that everything will turn out alright; "Kubla Khan," however, offers no such relief. I may be wrong, but I feel that this might be, in part, because of the lack of closure in "Kubla Khan" due to Coleridge losing the image. After reading through a poem with an ominous tone, a poem that has warnings and prophesies, we don't find out what happens in the poem. It just ends, the image is lost, and we are left wondering what happens next. This creates a much different feeling than "Frost at Midnight" did. However, in spite of the differences in tone and message, both poems seemed to use similar methods to create their tones and messages; and I enjoyed both of these poems.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely! I also talked about the imagery and how the speaker's diction really emphasized the tones of the poems. I especially like your idea of the image being lost in "Kubla Khan" which is why we don't get the happy ending that we do in "Frost at Midnight"
DeleteBoth poems are very strong in their imagery and diction. Whether referencing a “sacred river” or an “owlet’s cry,” each moment of description provides the reader with an almost tangible scene. While both poems are able to paint a clear image, I noticed mostly the different moods at different points. “Frost at Midnight” begins with a gloomy description while the reader is awake in his cottage. Alone with his thoughts and engulfed in the silent night, the environment comes across as super eerie and a bit disturbing. However, the poem then transitions to focus on a baby fast asleep in a cradle. From here the mood picks up to become more hopeful as the speaker looks upon his child with joy. He hopes that his baby will grow up to be happy through all seasons, even in the winters when days are dim and cold. “Kubla Khan” appears to have an opposite mood shift, starting with a state of peace, descending into something more sinister. The glorious Xanadu is described in the first stanza to contain “sunny plots of greenery” and “gardens bright.” The second and third stanza tell of what is across the river, including a “savage place” and a “woman wailing.” Overall, the moods from each poem both correlate and contrast.
ReplyDeleteBoth "Frost at Midnight" and "Kubla Khan" were filled with imaginative imagery that helped the reader picture exactly what the speaker was dreaming of. As others have said, "Frost at midnight" had a lot of enjambment and caesura that helped create its peaceful flowiness. That scene was also described as almost completely silent and serene. In contrast, Kubla Khan was almost all end stop. Instead of describing a peaceful silence, the speaker described a rather chaotic scene with filled with "wailing" and "ceaseless turmoil." In the beginning of the last stanza though, the speaker describes a scene that could have been ing the first poem, almost connecting the two dreams; however, at the end of a poem, it turns sour like a trick in a nightmare, adding to the stressful and terrorizing feel of the poem.
ReplyDeleteI really liked both of these poems because of how they're almost a short story. Poems that I read tend to be either very short or long and epic. Coleridge's two poems seem to me to be two unique stories that are different in their subject matter and their styles but share common characteristics like repeated use of imagery and purposeful diction. Both stories were written after dreams and both have a dream- like quality. They flow very easily and yet jump between different scenes, similarly to how we experience dreams when asleep. I think Coleridge is able to capture the sort of feeling it is like when one is dreaming and the dramatic emotional changes one can experience while dreaming.
ReplyDeleteAs there was a large time between when the poems were written and the introduction of an addiction, there is a difference in the styles and the themes of the two poems. The first poem is obviously a happy poem, Coleridge is excited to see his son grow and develop in a natural setting. The second is a more poem of description wherein Coleridge describes a semi- fictional scene and the inhabitants of its domain.