Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan"

"Kubla Khan" is one Taylor Coleridge's most well known poems. The story of how the poem came to be is also well know. Coleridge was inspired by a dream he was having in a drug induced state and was said to have thought out at least 200 to 300 lines of poetry that he started to write when he woke up . After completing three stanzas, he got an interruption from a mysterious person which caused him to forget the rest of his vision. He wrote one final stanza to complete the poem that we have today.
"Kubla Khan" is a poem filled with images of nature that according to Coleridge would be inside the "pleasure dome" that Kubla Khan had ordered to be built. The poet used a wide range of natural imagery that included rivers, the ocean, the sea, caverns, hills and caves . It is a very romanticized poem in that it focuses on natural thoughts and a individual's vision, which would be Coleridge's vision he had in his dream.
The pleasure dome can be interpreted to symbolize our imaginations where vivid and fantasy like thoughts can be created however we please. In lines 2 to 5, Coleridge shows how endless he believes the imagination can be when he says "A stately pleasure-dome decree:/Where Alph, the sacred river, ran/ Through caverns measureless to man/ Down to a sunless sea". This means that our imaginations are as long and wide as a river running into a never ending sea.
I believe the Coleridge was trying to show how multifaceted our imaginations can be through all of the natural images in the poem. Our imagination can consist of both lighter and happy thoughts or complex and heavier ones. In lines 8 to 11, Coleridge says, "And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills/ Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree;/ And here were forests ancient as the hills,/ Enfolding sunny spots of greenery." This image of a blooming field is a lighter and happier thought which the poet had envisioned. Darker thoughts can also invade our imaginations which is shown in lines 12 to 17 :

But O, 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	15
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

On top of the hill, there was a bright and blooming field. Right below the hill, there is a woody covering that contains conflict and pain. In a way the field on the hill could symbolize a high point while the woody covering beneath could symbolize a low or conflicting point.

Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience

William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience are a series of poems focused on showing the contrasting views of life. Blake's Songs of Innocence are infused with ideals for the world while his Songs of Experience show the reality of the corrupt world we live in. Richard Clarke points out that in Blake's poetry the heart of innocence lacks the knowledge that comes with experience. Innocence consists of naivety, having a childlike wonder and having a more positive outlook on life. Life experiences can change our expectations and skew how we feel about the world in general.
" The Divine Image" from Innocence and Experience is a good example of Blake showing opposite views of life. The Songs of Innocence one talks about love, peace, pity and mercy being life's virtues but the Songs of Experience version expresses the opposite and tells of cruelty, jealousy, terror and secrecy as human virtues. In line 17 through 20 Blake says, "And all must love the human form,/In heathen, turk, or jew;/Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell/There God is dwelling too." It is an idealistic view that all people share these good virtues as well as they believe in God since Blake was heavily influenced by Christianity. In Songs of Experience, lines 1 to 4 say "Cruelty has a Human Heart,/And Jealousy a Human Face;/Terror the Human Form Divine,/And Secrecy the Human Dress." Blake expresses that people are made up of theses bad or evil virtues and it is the reality of the world.
William Blake's two versions of "Holy Thursday" display two very different moods. The Songs of Innocence version has a hopeful view for orphans left at charitable institutions while the Experience version has a darker mood to it. Lines 8 to 10 of the Innocence version states "Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands./Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,/Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of Heaven among." Blake writes of the orphan children united and together singing a powerful song as an uplifting and positive image. It is another idealistic view. The Experience version shows the harsher reality for orphans. On lines 8 to 12, Blake describes the orphan's lives as "And their sun does never shine,/And their fields are bleak & bare,/And their ways are fill'd with thorns:/It is eternal winter there." Blake is saying that their lives are cold, empty and void of any light. Instead of singing a hopeful song, Blake compares their singing to a trembling cry. The two versions depict two opposing moods due to the children experiencing hardships over time instead of remaining innocent forever.
The two versions of "The Chimney Sweeper" show opposing views of hopefulness and misery as well for the same reason. The Songs of Innocence version showed that despite hopelessness of the situation, Tom could still feel a sense of happiness and hope due to his innocence or naivety. This shows in lines 23 and 24, "Tho the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm,/So if all do their duty they need not fear harm." Tom's dream of heaven gave him something to hold onto and look forward to even in a helpless situation. The Songs of Experience version has a more cynical mood because the child in this poem realizes the hopelessness of his situation and how he is being used. In lines 7 to 8, Blake says "They clothed me in the clothes of death,/And taught me to sing the notes of woe." This child remembers the experience of his parents making him a chimney sweeper unlike the child in the first version who was sold young enough that he barely could remember. The child in the first version was much more innocent. The child in the Experience version understood that his parents used him and has lost his innocence from this.
When I think of innocence versus experience, I know that the more experiences you go through in life, the less innocent you become. The most innocent time in a person's life is when they are a baby and from there they start to lose their innocence. I think nowadays children are growing up faster and losing their innocence quicker than in the past due to the things things they see in school and on TV. Experience tends to change what we want or how we feel about certain things in our lives. It tends to give you more realistic expectations about live instead of just expecting what you dreamed for is going to come true. Life has its share of good and bad experiences. The more life experience you acquire, the more you realize that life isn't just black or white and that life is ever changing.

Thoughts on "Auguries of Innocence"

William Blake's poem describes the loss of innocence of not only nature but of humanity as a whole. He wants us to see that people are too focused on materialistic and selfish ways instead of focusing on what he deems to be actually important which are our emotions and preserving nature. I agree with Blake and especially in present times this poem is relevant despite being written 200 years ago. Society is now focused on technology and materialism while we tend forget to appreciate nature around us.
Blake's view of the human state seems to be that humanity as a whole is corrupted in many ways. People continue to take more and more from nature but do not give anything back. Blake basically says that people do not care enough for animals, trees and people less fortunate than themselves. The way to repair humanity is to focus more on our morals and feelings to guide us in life.
The poem is filled with contrasting images of human actions and nature. A large part of the poem is written with an action that leads to a consequence. The consequences are more symbolic that realistic even though they sound literal which makes them paradoxes. Line 15 and 16 can be used as an example. "A skylark wounded in the wing, A cherubim does cease to sing.". According to Blake, hurting this bird causes angels to stop singing. This is one of many examples that reinforces his idea that hurting nature is not right. There are comparisons of natural objects to human characteristics. On lines 49 and 50, Blake says "The poison of the honey bee, Is the artist's jealousy" which I took to mean the sting of a honey bee can be compared to a human emotion such as jealousy.
William Blake talks quite a bit about his philosophies on life in this poem. The last third of poem shows that Blake had a strong belief in faith and believes that people should also have strong faith instead of questioning everything. On lines 87 and 88, Blake says "He who shall teach the child to doubt, The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.". He reiterates his point using a nature reference in lines 109 and 110. "If the sun and moon should doubt, They'd immediately go out." During the Romantic Era, one of the romantics' issues with the Enlightenment stemmed from the need for explanations to everything instead of just accepting something as it was.
The Romantic Era was also a time of Revolution where people looked for opportunities to be treated equally. Blake touches upon this idea with his images of poverty and how the poor should be no less than the rich. Lines 79 and 80 state "The poor man's farthing is worth more Than all the gold on Afric"s shore." which means that a poor man's coin worth less than a penny is worth more than all the gold on Africa's shore. This idea is also shown in lines 101 and 102, "When gold and gems adorn the plow, To peaceful arts shall envy bow.", where Blake glorifies a simple life.
From lines 51 to 61, the two points I found that Blake was trying to make are that the truth is always better than a lie and that people live to go through pain and happiness. Blake believes that even a hurtful truth is better than any lie. I don't agree with this point and think it's a bit too idealistic especially i n situations that are not clearly black or white. It is human nature to lie if we feel that it will alleviate a situation even though we are taught that lying is morally wrong.
The second point is made in line 56 where Blake says "Man was made for joy and woe;". In lines 59 and 60, "Joy and woe are woven fine, A clothing for every soul divine.", the point is also made. I do agree with this point because while we all strive for happiness we also learn as we get older that we can not avoid feeling pain in life. Joy and woe are opposite emotions but it does not mean you can't experience them at the same time. They can be intertwined but yet unrelated. It is possible to be happy about one thing and upset about another. It has happened to me before. Usually one follows the other because no can always happy or always hurt.
"Auguries of Innocence" is filled with paradoxes of human behavior and natural things. Paradoxes are normal in our everyday lives because it is easy to contradict ourselves without even knowing it. Sometimes we can't control how people take the things we say. Sometimes we think too literally and other times too figuratively. I believe that William Blake wanted us to see that humans should literally focus on their feelings and also on nature because that is what should be important to us.