Coleridge and Shelley

The purpose of most literature written during the Romantic period is to enact social or political change. Kubla Khan was written to enact social change. Coleridge wrote this poem to caution readers against the indulgence of the imagination. This poem was written after the author's trip on opium. He clearly was not in the right state of mind. There are an array of thoughts in the poem. For example, "with walls and towers were girdled round", " by woman wailing for her demon lover", and " a sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice". These are just a few lines from the poem. As you can see, he goes from one topic to another. In addition, his imagery is extremely vivid which may be a problem. You should not be imaging things like this when you wake up from a nap. The author mind was in total chaos and was not focused on one thing. This is relevant to readers today because it is informing us about the dangers of indulgencing in the imagination. It is great to have imagination but you have to know where to draw the line between imagination and reality. The author overindulged in imagination so much that it took him out of reality.

2. There are three voices being heard. The three voices being heard in the poem are the narrator, the traveler, and the king, Ozymandias. The three voices give the listeners three different perspectives on a situation. The narrator voice is just telling us a story that the traveler told him. He never actually experienced the broken statue in the desert. The traveler voice in is just to pass the story on to the narrator. The king voice informs listeners about his character. For example, Line 10-11 " My name is Ozymandias, king of kings, Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!". This shows listeners how arrogant and obnoxious he was. At the end of the poem it talks about how the statue fell. The statue crumbling is symbolism for the downfall of the empire. The empire downfall was due to the King being hubris. Now he is left with nothing. I learned from this poem that you should not let your pride get the best of you. If you do, in the end that is all you is going to have.