First published in 1967, this book seeks to show the causes which led to Coleridge’s breakdown in 1802 and to indicate how his views on poetry changed as a result of it. The approach is selective in that it only focuses on one part of Coleridge’s life (roughly 1793-1810); however the author attempts to relate a number of different areas of his activity and to trace his emotional and moral development more closely than might be possible in a full-scale biography. The account of Coleridge’s life ends in 1810, when his relationship with the two key figures in his life Asra and Wordsworth had ruptured, as this reflected which of Coleridge’s Notebooks were available at the time.

Though left uncompleted, “Kubla Khan” is one of the most famous examples of Romantic era poetry. In it, Samuel Coleridge provides a stunning and detailed example of the power of the poet’s imagination through his whimsical description of Xanadu, the capital city of Kublai Khan’s empire. Samuel Coleridge penned “Kubla Khan” after waking up from an opium-induced dream in which he experienced and imagined the realities of the great Mongol ruler’s capital city. Coleridge began writing what he remembered of his dream immediately upon waking from it, and intended to write two to three hundred lines. However, Coleridge was interrupted soon after and, his memory of the dream dimming, was ultimately unable to complete the poem. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

First published in 1967, this book seeks to show the causes which led to Coleridge’s breakdown in 1802 and to indicate how his views on poetry changed as a result of it. The approach is selective in that it only focuses on one part of Coleridge’s life (roughly 1793-1810); however the author attempts to relate a number of different areas of his activity and to trace his emotional and moral development more closely than might be possible in a full-scale biography. The account of Coleridge’s life ends in 1810, when his relationship with the two key figures in his life Asra and Wordsworth had ruptured, as this reflected which of Coleridge’s Notebooks were available at the time.

This book endorses Coleridge's statement: "nothing can permanently please which does not contain in itself the reason why it is so". It conceives of "Kubla Khan" as of a hypnotic poem, in which the "obtrusive rhythms" produce a hypnotic, emotionally heightened response, giving false security to the "Platonic Censor", so that our imagination is left free to explore higher levels of uncertainty. Critics intolerant of uncertainty tend to account for the poem's effect by extraneous background information. The book consists of three parts employing different research methods. Part One is speculative, and discusses three aspects of a complex aesthetic event: the verbal structure of "Kubla Khan", validity in interpretation, and the influence of the critic's decision style on his critical decisions. The other two parts are empirical. Part Two explores reader response to gestalt qualities of rhyme patterns and hypnotic poems in perspective of decision style and professional training. Part Three submits four recordings of the poem by leading British actors to instrumental investigation.

The six hundred passengers and crew members aboard a jumbo jetliner are left without a destination and a country when nuclear war breaks out and spreads devastation around the world. A collapsed economy and an increasingly savage society were causing thousands to abandon America. Captain Jonah Scott was a pilot, hired to fly some lucky refugees to London. But once in the air, nuclear war broke out, and Scott became responsible for the entire human race!