Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) wrote “Kubla Khan” in 1797, supposedly after waking from an opium-induced sleep in which the poem arrived to him as if it were a dream. The process of actually writing the poem down proved to be vexing, resulting in a poem whose true subject is the challenges and imperfections of the artistic process. The poem itself is highly allusive, drawing on Xanadu, the summer palace of the Mongol emperor Kubla Khan, for its bright, exotic images.

Skills: analysis, drawing inferences from text, close reading, identifying the relationship between words

About This Document

The Owl Eyes Allusions activity gives students an opportunity to practice identifying and analyzing allusions. Allusions broaden the scope of a text and imbue passages of the text with deeper meaning by subtly drawing on literature, history, science, geography, philosophy, mythology, or other cultural sources. The main components of this activity include the following:

• A contextualized paragraph of the text
• A handout defining “allusion” with examples from classic works
• A list of tips for spotting allusions
• A step-by-step guide to activity procedure
• An example answer

In completing this activity, students will be able to identify, analyze, and interpret allusions, thereby accessing deeper meanings within the text.