Sunday, March 22, 2009

Hidden treasures & pleasures

1) The power of the imagination is often exalted in Romantic poetry. In your opinion, does “Kubla Khan” celebrate the imagination or caution against its indulgence? To whom might Coleridge be writing and for what purpose(s)?
Coleridge is saying anything is understandable to imagine but taking it to another level is simply crazy. Just as one might get too carried away in life's simple or ornate pleasures, imagination is difficult because it can drive one to belive somethinmg that isnt true. He is writing to any one who feels their real life isnt grand enough and like to think optimisticaly but wanrs them too not dream bigger than what you can accomplish. Even when ones life is as they would like it to be, it shouldnt go to your head.

2) Even in the brief space of a sonnet, Shelley suggests a number of narrative frames. How many speakers do you hear in "Ozymandias"? What does each of these voices seem to say to you (or to others) as listeners?

I hear the narrator whom desbribes himself in a sentance as "I" and he is the basis for the entire poem for he is taught about this work of art that tells the Kings decree on it. Then A traveler tell the narrator about these pieces that lie in the middle of the desert and they are so unique they tell the story of their sculptors and how they wanted to be remebered. The piece bores the words of the King Ozymandias on it, the third and final speaker. He claims to know his kingdom has fallen all around and yet his works will live on forever in the sand where he used to reign.

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