Coleridge and Shelley

In Kubla Kahn's poetry, it seems as if he is trying to caution us against diving too deep in our imagination. In the beginning of the poem, there is a beautiful image portrayed through Kahn's poetry. The land consists of ten miles of fertile land, measureless caverns, a sacred river and more. Upon reading this description, one can not help but to instantly think of a paradise. With the given description there is no immediate flaw present with the land. However, Kahn goes on to say that the land is enchanted and savage. This changes the whole perception of the land. When adding in that the land has negative flaws to it, it seems to diminish the value of what was described as originally. The message that I think is trying to be portrayed is that you can't take the good without the bad. Often times people like to imagine a Utopia or a perfect life. It seems as if Kahn is bringing us back to earth with this poem and tell us that everything isn't going to be as we want it.

In Shelley's poem it seems to be three different speakers. The first speaker acts as sort of a narrator who relates a story from history that has social or political relevance from history. The traveller brings in an important observation. He notices what can possibly be a statue from a pile of remains. The traveller was also responsible for bringing forth information. It turned out that the pile of remains was really a monument named Ozymandias. The monument said "My name is Ozymandias, King of kings, look on my words, ye Mighty and despair!" This seems like Ozymandias had some type of power, or at least he thought he did. To pronounce yourself King of Kings you clearly have to have an enormous sense of entitlement. However the statue is in ruins. This most likely means it was destroyed by some type of force. This could be signifying the brutal end to those how think of themselves higher then they are or those who have social and political power