Reading poems is a habit that does a lot of chemical changes in our mind by transforming the ways we think about the world. Poems have the vision to have another idea to see the world, which many of us lack. It is true that great artists have the same thing, which they reflect in their specific art forms. It makes Van Gogh or Vinci remarkable, as well as Coleridge and Shakespeare. Now, if you are a poem lover, you need to grow the habit of reading contemporary poems besides the classic ones. Classics are great in many ways, but when it comes to the motivational poems or any art, it talks about the current socio-political time you are living. Hence, to motivate you in reading contemporary poems more, here is a list of motivational poems.
Motivational Poems: Kubla Khan (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
This poem dates from the Romantic era of English literature, and its creator, Coleridge, is known as one of the greatest poets in the English language. This poem opens up a visual, which is an illusion and yet real. It has a substantial impact on the town Xanadu, where Kubla Khan built his dome within caves of ice. Located in a sunny area, the dome represents everything that is glorious and sacred. Amidst a nature contrasting and volatile, the people Xanadu hears the ancestral voices prophesying war, which brings in a more romantic and dangerous element in the poem.
Instead of the prophecy of war, Kubla Khan finds peace of mind in the pleasure dome created by him. The first stanza ends with this note, and the second stanza introduces an entirely different story where a dulcimer is singing of mount Abora and playing her string instrument, dulcimer. Now, many critics find these two paragraphs to be fragments, and yet, some of the critics have found the connection between these two. As they say, art has the ability to transform the world around us, and therefore, in the end, Coleridge showing that the emperor Kubla Khan is drinking the milk of Paradise as he has built a similar dome in the air.
Mirror (Sylvia Plath)
This poem is all about how the poet introduces a non-living character with personification. Here, the mirror is the onlooker, which sees and observes everything in a room and sits on the pink speckled wall. Then, the poet narrates that the mirror considers itself as a lake where the women come and see themselves. Also, by gazing at their reflection, the women try to discern who they really are. The moods change from daylight to candlelight, and in this cycle, the ritual of seeing someone’s own reflection remains the same.
Now, when the time changes, the women cannot bring back the past, and therefore, all their cries and grief are stored in the mirror. This poem, ending with this note, represents Plath’s theme of self-liberation as the central topic. Plath urges all the women of her time that it’s high time to come out of the flattering and superficial things and consider themselves as a stronger version of themselves.