Portends of Ill-Gotten Plans in Coleridges Kubla Khan...

Portends of ill-gotten plans Samuel Taylor Coleridge is widely regarded as one of the most prominent English poets and, with William Wordsworth, helped to found the Romantic Movement. Among two of his most well-known poetic works are Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Kubla Khans notoriety is partly due to the fact that the poem was written while Coleridge was under the influence of opium. The drugs influence on Coleridge is apparent in the poems style, which not only gives insight into Coleridges state of mind, but also gives the poem an overall dreamlike quality. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is also said to have been written while Coleridge was under the influence of opium. Like Kubla Khan, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner also contains many elements that give the poem a dreamlike feel. There are several overarching themes that are encompassed by the poems Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner including supernatural phenomena, conflict, and prophecy. In writing Kubla Khan, Coleridge was influenced by Sir William Joness A Hymn to Ganga, referencing the work in his notebooks and in a letter that was written to John Thelwall (Cannon 137). Kubla Khan echoes Joness work; for instance, Kubla Khans Ancestral voices prophesying war! echoes Joness bards his wars and truth proclaim with an additional echo seen in Kubla Khans A mighty fountain momently was forced echoing from a fiery cave the bubbly crystal flows (Coleridge 30, 19; Jones