LitWords

Introduction Kubla Khan: or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment     is a poem by the Romantic poet Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. As it was narrated in the preface, “he was reading  Purchas his Pilgrimage  by Samuel Purchas [written in 1625], a work describing Shangdu or Xanadu , the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty  founded by the Mangol  Emperor Kubla Khan and fell asleep after reading . He then continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, during which time he had the most vivid confidence, that he could not have composed less than from two or three hundred lines. On Awaking he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved.” “At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock... and on his return to his room, found, to his surprise and embarrassment, that though he still retained some vague and dim r

“Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798”— commonly known as “Tintern Abbey”— is a poem written by the British Romantic poet William Wordsworth. Wordsworth had first visited the Wye Valley when he was 23 years old, in 1793. His return five years later occasioned this poem, which Wordsworth saw as articulating his beliefs about nature, creativity, and the human soul. “Tintern Abbey” was included as the final poem in  Lyrical Ballads , 1798. The title is very significant. The poem's title reveals that it has a very specific setting: The Wye Valley, on the Welsh side of the River Wye. We discover that the poet has been here before; he is now ‘revisiting’ the Wye valley. The title also lets the reader know the context that has led to the poem: a walking tour that Wordsworth took with his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, in the area. The title even establishes the exact date the poem was written (July 13, 1798). The