College English: Modernist Rewrite of Romantic Poem Assignment

This assignment solution showcases a student's understanding of modernist literature by rewriting Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan." The assignment, broken into four parts, begins with the selection of the Romantic poem. The student then provides a detailed analysis of the poem's language, style, literary elements, and themes. The core of the assignment involves a modernist rewrite of "Kubla Khan," incorporating at least three key characteristics of modernism, such as a focus on cynicism, the complexities of modern life, and a break from traditional literary styles. The rewrite uses experimental language and techniques, including a distinct shift in the speaker's perspective and the introduction of fragmented imagery to reflect the alienation of the individual in the modern world. Finally, the student explains the choices made during the rewrite, highlighting the modernist qualities introduced in terms of language, style, literary elements, and themes, demonstrating a comprehensive grasp of the differences between Romanticism and Modernism.

English | Graded Assignment | Write Like a Modernist
Name: Date:
Graded Assignment
Write Like a Modernist
Over the course of the next several days, you will complete a writing assignment. In the assignment, you will
demonstrate your understanding of the tenets of modernist literature by rewriting a Romantic poem in a way that
incorporates typically modernist qualities in terms of language, style, literary elements, and themes. The
assignment is broken down into four parts.
Part 1: Choose a Romantic Poem.
Romantic literature champions the beauty of the world and the inherent goodness of human beings, and Romantic
verse is highly structured and deeply traditional. Modernism frequently defines itself as a reaction against and a
rejection of romanticism. Modernist poets viewed Romantic poetry as a remnant of the nineteenth century.
Modernists did not think that writing as the Romantics did in the 1800s could effectively capture their twentieth-
century world or their experiences in that world.
Begin this assignment by choosing a Romantic poem from the nineteenth century that you intend to rewrite in a
way that incorporates typically modernist qualities. You can find numerous examples of nineteenth-century
Romantic poetry on pages 83–112 of your Journeys anthology. For example, William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered
Lonely as a Cloud,” which appears on pages 90–91 of your anthology, is a well-known Romantic poem. Note: You
may not use this poem in your answer.
Part 2: Briefly Explain the Romantic Poem You Chose
In a single paragraph, describe the Romantic poem that you selected. Focus on the language, style, literary
elements, and themes of the work. This step of the process is important because these are the aspects of the
work that your modernist rewrite of it will change. Here, as an example, is a brief explanation of Wordsworth’s “I
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”:
Most of Wordsworth’s poem describes how a “crowd” of daffodils near a lake looked as they fluttered in
the breeze. This poem uses formal language, has a fixed rhyme scheme, and employs an even meter.
The speaker is very closely linked to the poet, and neither the voice nor the perspective in the piece ever
shifts. The work contains a number of similes—one compares the speaker to a lonely cloud, another
compares the daffodils to stars—and the flowers are personified to make the descriptions of them more
vivid. Thematically speaking, the poem is about how, even long after having seen the flowers, the speaker
feels comforted and happy whenever he thinks of their beauty.
Part 3: Do a Modernist Rewrite of the Romantic Poem You Chose
Begin your rewrite. To do so, imagine yourself as a poet in the early twentieth century, and imagine your rewrite
as an attempt to update the outdated elements of the nineteenth-century work you selected. Remember that
modernist poems
 Capture the cynicism and disappointment many people felt toward outdated nineteenth-century ideas
 Focus on the complexities of modern life
 Highlight the alienation of the individual in the modern world
 Break with past literary traditions and styles
 Employ references to diverse cultures, belief systems, and histories
 Use experimental language and techniques, such as drawing a distinct line between the poet and the
speaker and writing from multiple perspectives and in different voices
Your rewrite must incorporate at least three of the six listed characteristics of modernism. Here is an example of a
modernist rewrite of the first stanza of Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”:
© 2015 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 1 of 8
Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.

English | Graded Assignment | Write Like a Modernist
Wordsworth’s First Stanza
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
First Stanza of a Modernist Rewrite of Wordsworth
I stood coldly alone, like a World War I flying ace
Who cruises over the shells of bombed-out towns.
As the black fog cleared, I saw a building,
Ten thousand crumblecracking bricks;
Beside a forsaken hospital, over a glass-strewn street,
Sagging depressed during Tefnut’s shower.
Part 4: Briefly Explain Your Modernist Rewrite
In a response of at least two paragraphs, provide an explanation of the steps you took to rewrite the Romantic
poem you selected. Your explanation should point out at least three typically modernist qualities in your work with
regard to elements such as language, style, literary elements, and themes. Here, as an example, is a brief
explanation of the modernist rewrite of the first stanza of Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”:
In the first stanza of my rewrite, I tried to drastically change the mood of the poem. I did so by first
changing the opening simile, linking the speaker (who is most certainly distinct from myself as the poet) to
a World War I flying ace looking down on an empty town devastated by war. This image not only calls to
mind the destruction that people in the early twentieth century witnessed, but also the loneliness felt by
the individual when witnessing such devastation. I introduced ambiguity by not identifying the nationality
of the pilot to whom the speaker compares himself: He may be a man seeing the destruction of his own
town, or he may be one of the men who brought destruction on the town during battle.
Then I decided to change the daffodils—a symbol of the beauty of the natural world in Wordsworth’s
poem—to a crumbling building on an abandoned and ugly street. I thought these images helped convey a
sense of loss. I used the word crumblecracking—an invented term—to call to mind how the broken bricks
of the building look. This type of experimentation with language is typical of modernist poetry. Finally, I
used the word forsaken not only because it suggests abandonment, but also because it calls to mind the
last words of Jesus on the cross. This allusion then quickly blends into the reference to a mythological
figure, Tefnut, the Egyptian goddess of rain and fertility. This allusion hints at the possibility of remaking a
new world out of the fragments of the old, yet the “sagging” hospital attests to how hard such a restoration
would be. Thematically, I was trying to depict the loneliness and the alienation of the speaker in this
decrepit world.
Now begin your assignment.
© 2015 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 2 of 8
Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.

English | Graded Assignment | Write Like a Modernist
Total score: ____ of 100 points
(Score for Question 1: ___ of 10 points)
1. Choose a Romantic poem from the nineteenth century that you intend to rewrite in a way that incorporates
typically modernist qualities. You can find numerous examples of nineteenth-century Romantic poetry on
pages 83–112 of your Journeys anthology. Copy the text of the poem here.
Answer:
Kubla Khan
BY SA MU EL T AY LO R COLER ID GE
Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
© 2015 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 3 of 8
Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.

English | Graded Assignment | Write Like a Modernist
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
(Score for Question 2: ___ of 20 points)
2. In a single paragraph, describe the Romantic poem that you selected. Focus on the language, style, literary
elements, and themes of the work.
Answer:
© 2015 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 4 of 8
Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.

English | Graded Assignment | Write Like a Modernist
Kubla Khan has been termed as a fragmentary poem and is divided into two parts. The first part or
fragment consists of an introduction in the form of prose where Coleridge recounts the moments during which he
conceived Kubla Khan as a poem (Janowitz). His confession informs the readers about the fact that he had fallen
into a slumber on being in the influence of opium. Since he is asleep, he dreams of the image of Kubla Khan,
which he puts into words and creates the poem. However, an interruption causes him to stop midway and later he
tries to recollect the dream and continue writing.
Nevertheless, his insecurities come in the way of claiming the poem as a masterpiece. Despite the poem
being bipartite, Kubla Khan becomes the God-like figure who creates the world, and the Eden only by mere
utterance (Janowitz). His decrees are capable of animating the world that contains the foundations as well as
rivers, caves, and gardens, energy along with peace- that leads the creation of enchantment and hallow in the
same time. These extremities are also the representation of life, and the origin of it, followed by consciousness
and art. It is in this Eden that conflict, a fall that has been anticipated for those emperors who hears prophecies of
an ancient war. At this point, there is an abrupt break in the flow of the poem as it moves to the dream of an
Abyssinian maiden who is playing the dulcimer and is signing of a holy mountain. Coleridge here makes a
declaration that he has been able to recall the song of the maid very similar to the lines of evocation. Along with it,
Coleridge also claims to be able to restate what Kubla Khan has created, mostly by doing that in terms of
recreating the poetry from the dream he had dreamt (Levinson).
However, limiting the poem to the influence of opium and not the credit of the poet and his poetic creation
would lead to undermining the calibre of the poetic capability. Only some poet like Coleridge would have been to
conceive poetry of this measure and depth like that of Kubla Khan. The subtitle too carries “a vision” that is
represented in a part that is recollected and described in the vision of the poem. The romanticism in the poet is a
part of romanticism itself, and those readers who are capable of interpreting this meaning and the fragmentation
of the reflections, critics and literary criticism become a fragmentation of the movement of romanticism. What gets
lefts behind is a fragmentation of the allegory of one of the greatest creation of the Romantic period (Solomon).
(Score for Question 3: ___ of 30 points)
3. Rewrite the Romantic poem you selected. Focus particularly on making your rewrite read like a modernist
poem in terms of its language, style, literary elements, and themes. Be sure to incorporate into your rewrite at
least three of the six qualities of modernist poetry listed below.
Remember that modernist poems
 Capture the cynicism and disappointment many people felt toward outdated nineteenth-century ideas
 Focus on the complexities of modern life
 Highlight the alienation of the individual in the modern world
 Break with past literary traditions and styles
 Employ references to diverse cultures, belief systems, and histories
 Use experimental language and techniques, such as drawing a distinct line between the poet and the
speaker and writing from multiple perspectives and in different voices
Answer:
Kubla has shape-shifted to the underdone bed this afternoon,
Knotted sheets, damp and sticky,
Pillows losing out on comfort-
Kubla has shape-shifted out of his body.
He is someone else now.
© 2015 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 5 of 8
Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.

English | Graded Assignment | Write Like a Modernist
Xanadu, being a memory on the hood of his eyelids,
He looks at the dragonflies dancing in the rain.
At the cuckoo perched on the terrace next door.
His eyes look at how the rain drops somewhere
Between transparent and translucent.
His mind speaks to him in haste as it rains harder at his window.
How wonderful it would have been to put down these in words…
Only if he had someone to write-
It would have made great poetry!
Kubla’s breath hitches as the rain pounds on the rooftops
Someone calls out his name.
It is not raining anymore.
His mother says he is wasting time,
That all of this is in his head.
Kubla’s eyes see the wet patches on the house next door.
Grasping on the edges of sanity.
Kubla’s mind has shape-shifted to me now.
The words flow quietly
As quiet as the blood in my mouth.
Kubla’s mind has shape-shifted to me now.
(Score for Question 4: ___ of 40 points)
4. In a response of at least two paragraphs, provide an explanation of the steps you took to rewrite the Romantic
poem you selected. Your explanation should point out at least three typically modernist qualities in your work
with regards to things such as language, style, literary elements, and themes.
Answer:
Kubla of the romantic period is an ordinary man now who lives in a rural neighbourhood. There is no grandeur of
the kingdom of Xanadu, and neither is the magnificent beauty of Eden. The damsel with dulcimer is nothing but a
speck of dream that he does not remember or recall anymore. He is a simple man who sits and contemplates on
the train of thoughts that keep flooding in mind. The language used for the modernist rewrite has undergone
immense changes in comparison to the language used by Coleridge in his Kubla Khan. Kubla in the present can
only remember a hint of what Xanadu had represented. While Coleridge’s Kubla was out creating heaven, and
juxtaposing sunny domes and caves of ice, my Kubla is confined in his bed, and the afternoon of his dreams. He
is the everyman of the modernist era who is incapable of carrying out any action. There is a split between the two
selves of Kubla at the end which to signifies the modernist poetry. There is also a lament of the bygone era, which
was significantly identified with the creation of the modernist period. While Coleridge’s Kubla was in sheer
celebration of his poetic creation, the modern Kubla cannot go beyond the shadow of poetry and the poem.
Hence, the readers are only presented with the moments in time when Kubla tries to capture the sequence of his
dream. The celebration of nature in the romantic era of poetry is significantly missing as the horrors of the world
© 2015 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 6 of 8
Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.

English | Graded Assignment | Write Like a Modernist
war have effectively destroyed such miraculous creations of nature and left behind barren lands. Modernist rewrite
of Kubla is devoid of any such notion of a romantic celebration of nature. The form and structure of the poem lack
coherency and are extremely untraditional in its structure. Kubla of modern times is hugely disillusioned; as he
has realized that, the dream of Coleridge cannot be achieved or conceived anymore.
© 2015 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 7 of 8
Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.

English | Graded Assignment | Write Like a Modernist
Work Cited
Asim, Muhammad, Amjad Hussain, and Amina Akram. "VISION OF NATURE: ROMANTIC POETICAL
IMAGINATION." (2017).
Janowitz, Anne. "The romantic fragment." A companion to romanticism (2017): 479-488.
Levinson, Marjorie. The Romantic Fragment Poem: A Critique of a Form. UNC Press Books, 2017.
Solomon, Lucy. "Reimagined worlds in the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Metaphor 1 (2019): 52.
© 2015 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 8 of 8
Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.