ENGL 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Kubla Khan, To Autumn
Document Summary
Poems of disappointment: la belle dame sans merci & ode to a nightingale. To autumn, ode on a grecian urn, oh bright star. The claim to possession; what makes the experience of desire depicted in the first two fail is the claim to possess the object of desire. The point of desire is not to get the thing you want, but it is instead to creatively explore you experience your fantasy about things you can"t possess. To creatively refine and think about what you really want as an expressive act rather than just getting it. Leads us to the unavoidable disappointment -- disposition of kubla. Khan -- to be the god or monarch we once imagines owned all the value. Are experience of desire is perpetually prone to buyer"s remorse; really desiring something and having the fulfillment not live up to the hope.
