2005-04-04 01:32:16.0 2005-02-02 23:10:38.0 This entire section of the poem, with {link:"fast thick pants"|http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:9780/snipsnap/eng242-s05/space/Kubla+Khan#pants} "half-intermitted burst," and most telling "wailing for her demon-lover" is seeped in sexual imagery, almost violent in nature. The "lurking misogyny" mentioned in class which is present in many of Coleridge's poems is none more evident than here, in which the feminine is tied to the fall of the pleasure dome. When this temptation is injected into this almost Neo-Platonic creative ideal, the result is an almost Eden-like dissolution into pre-creative oblivion. And yet paradoxically, when the feminine is re-introduced, in the Damsel with a dulcimer, she is symbolic of pure creative impulse. Coleridge seems to lump women in his poems into Eves or Muses, which is fitting, considering his relationship with his wife. 2005-02-09 21:01:04.0 2005-02-07 15:25:15.0 Kate Millet, a feminist philosopher, writes that "the introduction of what are seen to be evils of the male human condition came through the introduction of the female and what is said to be her unique product, sexuality," (Theory of Sexual Politics, pg. 51). She cites a number of religious and anthropological origins of paternalism through which women are the sexual servants of men. Female sexuality, likewise portrayed through [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], is the downfall of man. His poem echoes traditional sentiment about female sexuality. This property, in [Kubla Khan], however, seems strikingly similar to a drug addiction, as well...it's not only man's desire, but it's something he cannot live without... 2005-02-11 14:36:43.0 2005-02-07 17:49:09.0 Mon Feb 07 19:57:43 EST 2005