“Imaginative journeys take us into new worlds and allow us to have new insights” Discuss this with close reference to your prescribed texts.
...ontrast highlights the effect of his imaginative journey and it shows how his imagination changed throughout his journey. The end of this imaginative journey resulted in awakening Coleridge to the beauty that surrounds him. He now takes notice of the beauty of the bower itself. He contrasts the ‘transparent foliage” to the blazing sun he foresaw in his imaginative journey. Contrast between light and dark displays the vision of his awakening to the lime-tree bowers beauty “Those fronting elms, and now, with blackest mass Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue”. Coleridge gives a suggestion by stating if we actually sit and think we can actually experience nature. Coleridge’s other poem, “Kubla Khan” also depicts notions of the Imaginative Journey. The poem was written when Coleridge was under the influence of drugs. He had seen this journey in a dream in which he woke up and was not able to ‘fully recover it’. It is more a poem of creativity in relation to the imaginative journey. The title of the poem can also be known as a ‘vision in a dream, a fragment’. These words accentuate the importance of imagination and the creative experience. It allows the poet to investigate aspects of what is real and fantastical, definite and spiritual and this creation becomes a method to explore the disposition of the poet’s imaginative experience. In this poem, the poet takes the reader on a journey into the mind and spirit. The opening of the poem begins in third person and focuses and highlights the amount of power that Kubla Khan possesses. It is taken further than the space of human power in real life making the poem more imaginable with the words of ‘sacred’ and ‘measureless’. In this poem, Kubla Khan wants to create this ‘pleasure-dome’ in which it is a place of exquisite sensual pleasure. It’s a poem abounding in sensuality and exotic described in its beauty and savagery. In the first stanza of the poem several techniques of have been used to convey this sense of creativity and imagination. Alliteration is used to convey the amount of power this King has, “Measureless to man”. The gardens are brighter and more beautiful than any real garden therefore only being possible within ones imagination. This is achieved through adjectives used such as “bright”, “sinuous” and “incense-bearing”. The use of assonance makes the place sound more abundant, “twice five miles”. It is setup by juxta positioning a lot of contrasting images making the environment all the more diverse. The second stanza contains many sensual and emotional ambiances. “But oh!” the exclamation marks convey it’s beauty along with the contrast of ‘savagery’ and beauty combined. The use of the words “Holy and enchanted” portray a supernatural presence in which links to the human imagination. Two techniques are combined in, “As if this earth in fast think pants were breathing” where a simile is used that personifies the earth therefore being described in sexual terms. The ‘lifeless ocean’ is compared to ‘fertile ground’ where two features combine to draw the audience into the imaginative journey and takes them along. In the final stanza, the narrative changes to first person. It begins with a damsel playing a dulcimer in which the narrator is trying to recreate the song. For him recreating the song, its like Kubla trying to create the pleasure dome. Rhetorical question is used in whether can he re-establish the song, “Could I revive within me?” The poem leads on to warning the reader that a person who has visions can be frightening or overwhelming that separates them from the rest of the world. At the end of the poem, the narrator is touched with something spiritual again implying notions of the imaginative journey This poem talks about the ability to imagine and create, which is always linked to the ability to imagine. Coleridge explores his ideas about the imagination using two examples. One was of Kubla Khan creating his pleasure dome and the second was of his vision of the girl with the dulcimer. The song Peace Train by Cat Stevens goes through an imaginative journey from a realm of anarchy and war to a world of ‘peace’ and ‘paradise’. It is formed surrounding the metaphor of the ‘peace train’, which is a vehicle that has the ability to transfer the world to an improved place. It explores issues such as how the world can be of a better place and environment to live in if everyone worked together. He states in the song that this peace train is a dream and imagination however the technique of upbeat rhythm insinuates that this dream can be achieved if people join hands which is conveyed through the repetition of the line, “Everyone jump upon the peace train”. Symbolism is also used to embody the present state of the world as “darkness” giving negative nuances. Music techniques are also a factor contributing to senses of imagination and feeling. The rhythm implies movement and that the imaginative journey is traveling towards peace. The increase in volume and change from a single voice to multiple voices proposes togetherness and union. It ends with a slower rhythm in which it recommends that moving from a dark world full of war to peace might be what everyone wants but it is something one can only imagine. This song contains many aspects of the imagination such as: • Movement from darkness to light • The peace train itself being imaginary • Representing different people coming together • And a sense of togetherness and unity. A similar text in relation to the Imaginative is the Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. The movie allows the individual to enter a realm of magic and transcend to a world we would normally imagine. The film is structured in a chronological order, which allows us to go along the journey. The movie begins with using digital techniques such as capturing light from the street and the effect of a cat transforming into a woman. The cat is symbolic for the creature of the night, creature of mystery which a...