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SEMINAR
ON
The supernatural in the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for Award of Degree of
Bachelors of Arts (Hons.) in English

Submitted By: Supervised By:

Mahima Bhambri Vineeta Prasad
A0706116286

Amity Institute of English Studies and Research

AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH
India
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DECLARATION
Date: 21 March 2017

I, Mahima Bhambri, student of Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English of Amity Institute of

English Studies and Research, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, hereby declare that I

have completed the seminar on The supernatural in the poetry of Samuel Taylor

Coleridge in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English. I declare that it is an original work and has not

been submitted so far in part or in full, for award of any other degree or diploma of any

University or Institution.

(Mahima Bhambri)
A0706116286
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AMITY UNIVERSITY
--------------UTTAR PRADESH-------------
Amity Institute of English Studies and Research

Date: 21 March 2017

CERTIFICATE

This seminar titled The supernatural in the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

submitted by Mahima Bhambri, Enrollment No. A0706116286, of Amity Institute of

English Studies and Research, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English, is

an original work and has not been submitted so far in part or full, for award of any

other degree or diploma of any University or Institution.

Vineeta Prasad Professor Kanwal Bawa Bhalla

Head Of Department

Amity University Campus, Sector – 125, Noida – 201303, Gautam Buddha Nagar, U. P. (India)
Tel.: + 91(0)-120-4392192, 2219, 2641, 4392538, 2428,2427, 439000
E-mail: aiebc@amity.edu Website: www.amity.edu/aiesr
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Description of Supernatural Elements in Coleridge’s Poem

Coleridge’s most outstanding contribution to romantic to romantic poetry is his treatment of

the supernatural. When Coleridge and words worth wrote the “Lyrical Ballads”, Coleridge

took the supernatural as his field and undertook to naturalize it. At hand is no any finer

dreamer in English verse than Coleridge. His high Supernatural imagination is controlled by

thought and study. Coleridge is co-founder of Romantic Movement with words worth .so, as

words worth is a nature poet, Coleridge is known for his supernaturalism

Let’s discuss Coleridge as a poet of supernatural by his poems like “Kubla Khan” and “The

Rim of Ancient marine”

Supernatural elements in “Kubla khan”

Kubla Khan is the product of sheer fancy. It is a dream poem, a poem of pure magic. It is one

of Coleridge’s three master pieces of supernatural poetry. The atmosphere of supernatural

mystery is created in Kubla Khan mint by the description of the pleasure dome and the

surrounding in which it stood

Kubla Khan is a product of pure fury, a work of sheer imagination. And is therefore a wholly

Romantic composition. A reader with a rational or a neo-classical spirit would perhaps fail to

find any meaning. Or logic or thought in this poem but to a romantic reader, the poem is a

source of intense pleasure and wonder. Kubla Khan is delightful blend of imagination,

emotion mystery sensuousness, romantic description, sweet melody and exquisite diction.

Kubla Khan is a poem of pure magic. It is one of Coleridge‘s three master pieces of

supernatural poetry, and the other two are “Christabel” and “The Rim of Ancient mariner”.

Through the use of vivid imagery Coleridge reproduces a paradise like vision of the

landscape and kingdom created by Kubla Khan.

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The atmosphere of supernatural mystery is created in Kubla Khan mainly by a description of

the pleasure dome and the surrounding in which it stood. “For instance, the river Alpha

flowing through caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea.” The immeasurable

abysses and the sunless sea stir in our mind the feeling of mystery and even fear.

Then comes the deep romantic gorge which lay across a wood of cedar trees. The manner in

which the water intermittently gushed forth from the spring, throwing up huge place of rock

were breathing in fast, thick plants is staggering to the readers imagination. The atmosphere

of mystery and fear is emphasized when another reference is made to the sunless sea or the

lifeless ocean in to which the water of alpha falls with a loud roar. The whole of this

description is awe-inspiring if not horrifying.

It should be noted that suggestiveness is a very important ingredient of Coleridge’s

supernaturalism. Nor should we forget the closing lines which contain a picture of natural and

the supernatural. A poet’s inspiration is of the well-known and natural facts of human life but

there is something supernatural about the way in which this poetic inspiration and the creative

power of a poet are depicted!

“And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His fleshing eyes, his floating hair!

weave a circle round him thrice and

Close eyes with holy dread for him on

Honey – drew hath fed and drunk the

Milk of paradise”.

Every line here emphasizes the atmosphere of mystery and fear which is the key note of the

poem. And yet the whole desiccation is psychologically accurate because when the poet is in

the state of frenzy is really a magician: touches of realism indeed, have been added, even to
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the description of the chasm and mighty fountain. The two similes-rebounding hails and the

chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s fail-are drawn from actual life and are the most realistic.

Even in the mid of his far of, divorced from life description, Coleridge does not forget that

his real purpose was to make the supernatural and to bring about that “willing suspension of

disbelief which constitutes poetic faith.”

Kubla Khan is triumph of supernaturalism. It transforms the world of everyday life in to

world of enchantment. Indeed, this poem ranks as a master piece of supernaturalism. In the

poem the images which had been deposited the unconscious mind of Coleridge from his

reading about subteraneam rivers, pleasures; places and others marvelous things, emerged to

his conscious mind and were exposed immediately and spontaneously in words. The caverns

measureless to man, the romantic chasm the intermittent burst of water from the fountain, the

sunless sea, they all create a world of wonder and enchantment. The atmosphere of

strangeness and mystery has effetely and skillful been created in the poem.

Indeed, this poem ranks as a master piece of supernaturalism and is one of the three poems

which brought the name of Coleridge to the forefront of the greatest English poets.

Kubla Khan is his master piece of poem of supernaturalism the description of a Dom

“pleasure Dom” and how he take a support to this Dom to create his own Dom. the

description of his Dom is very beautiful and it create its magical effect on reader.
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WORK CITED

https://www.poemhunter.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge/
http://pmahbub.blogspot.in/2011/08/supernaturalism-in-st-coleridge.html