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    The poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which was written after an opium-induced dream, contains many supernatural elements. The very first line "a vision in a dream, a fragment" suggests that it is a vision and not reality so the things mentioned in the poem will not be real. The poet saysRead more

    The poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which was written after an opium-induced dream, contains many supernatural elements. The very first line “a vision in a dream, a fragment” suggests that it is a vision and not reality so the things mentioned in the poem will not be real.

    • The poet says that River Alph flows which is scared. Thus it is related to some divine power.
    • Next, there are “caverns measureless to man” that flow “down to a sunless sea.”
    • There is a “deep romantic chasm with ceaseless (never-ending) turmoil”
    • There is a “holy and enchanted” place where a “woman” wailed “for her demon lover”.
    • There are “ancestral voices prophesying war”
    • Finally, the poet talks about some paradise.

    Read summary of Kubla Khan

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    Lucifer better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven

    Macbeth has a tone of supernatural even with its opening act. The role of the three witches, their foreboding prophecies and the use of apparitions or spirits to create dramatic effects helps set an atmosphere of dread and suspicion. The nightmares and hallucinations experienced by Lady Macbeth likeRead more

    Macbeth has a tone of supernatural even with its opening act. The role of the three witches, their foreboding prophecies and the use of apparitions or spirits to create dramatic effects helps set an atmosphere of dread and suspicion.

    The nightmares and hallucinations experienced by Lady Macbeth like blood stains on her arms etc and Macbeth like the ghost of Banquo etc. create a sense of mystery and mysticism in the tale.

    In the act 4, the witches again use dark spirits and witchcraft to manipulate and control Macbeth, thus, causing further chaos and instability in the Scottish kingdom.

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    Lucifer better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven

    This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams is a short poem which is originally a note written by a husband to her wife asking for forgiveness as he ate the plums which she had kept for breakfast. He ate them as they were tasty and he could not stop himself. The incident can be compared with thatRead more

    This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams is a short poem which is originally a note written by a husband to her wife asking for forgiveness as he ate the plums which she had kept for breakfast. He ate them as they were tasty and he could not stop himself.

    The incident can be compared with that of Adam and Eve – the first humans on Earth (according to the Bible and the Qur’an). God had warned them yet they ate the apple of the forbidden tree which led them to experience shame, guilt, death etc.

    Adam and Eve knew that they should not eat that apple yet they could not resist themselves. The poet, in this sense, is describing the human nature. From Adam and Eve to the modern man, we all commit sins in spite of knowing well.

    Read the summary of the poem here.

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