KUBLA KHAN LESSON TWO

◦ Objectives ◦ To understand how Coleridge presents the river in his poem ◦ To practise making links between texts ◦ Outcomes ◦ To annotate stanza two of the poem ◦ To write a comparison between Coleridge presentation of the river and Kubla Khan and an information text about rivers

Starter Quiz ◦ 1. Where is Xanadu? ◦ 2. Who is Kubla Khan? ◦ 3. How did Coleridge write the poem? ◦ Read the following sentence. ◦ ‘The glassy surface of the meandering brook swirls silently, spiralling in gentle loops as if to conceal its potency from potential swimmers’ ◦ How many different word classes can you find? ◦ Can you use any terminology from elsewhere in the cone to dissect this sentence?

How does Coleridge use lexis to emphasise the difference between the palace and the natural world outside? In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. Sinuous: winding, windy, serpentine, curving, twisting, meandering, Rill: a small stream. a shallow channel cut in the surface of soil or rocks by running water You have one minute to sketch Kubla Khan’s palace and surroundings from the information Coleridge gives us.

But oh! 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 By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: Exclamative mood – speaker’s awe ‘Deep’/’cedarn cover’ – sinister/threatening Sibilants Personification Simile A A B B C C

How does Coleridge use simile to convey the power and force of the river?

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war! The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! Homework: Please use schmoop.com to complete the line by line analysis of the poem. Bring to Thursday’s lesson at least one question that you would like answering.

Plenary: Skills focus on AO3 ◦ ‘The glassy surface of the meandering brook swirls silently, spiralling in gentle loops as if to conceal its potency from potential swimmers.’. ◦ This description is taken from Huckleberry Finn, a novel by Mark Twain. Write a paragraph that compares and contrasts this description of the Mississippi river to Coleridge’s description of the river in Kubla Khan. ◦ Use this paragraph structure: Being with a topic sentence that outlines the link you are about to make. In this case: Both of these writers describe a river. Both are fiction texts, although Coleridge’s River Alph itself is imaginary, a landscape he dreamt of whilst under the influence of opium. Mark Twain’s description of the Mississippi river is at least based on a real river. Start with the poem. How does the poet present the river? Make a clear point. Select and include a quote from the poem to prove your point. Comment on at least one technique and try to analyse the purpose (why the poet has chosen it – the effect on the reader). You can repeat this section a couple of times if you can see more than one technique. Use a connective (likewise/however) and make a clear point about how the writer of the other text presents the river. Select and include a quote from the text to prove your point. Comment on at least one technique and try to analyse the purpose (why the writer has chosen it – the effect on the reader). You can repeat this section a couple of times if you can see more than one technique. Try to link the writer’s presentation to the contextual information. (The audience and purpose of the unseen text).