Why Coleridge?

Being at Edinburgh was quite different from being at HKU. I had a lot to learn and a lot to adjust to.
I kept really busy for the first few weeks  - finding my way, studying, adapting, trying to forget B.J.
I tried desperately to concentrate on studying - trying, trying, trying . . . I told myself not to dwell on the past year.

You may wonder why I decided to work on Coleridge. 
I felt a connection to him. His writing on Kubla Khan fascinated me. Kubla Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, founder of Mongol Dynasty in China. China. My connection. Opium or no opium.

     In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan
           A stately pleasure-dome decree:
     Where Alpha, 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 . . .

 Vision in a Dream.

I did not fancy Reading 
     Either Wordsworth or Keats,
     Nor Browning, nor Yeats. 
     T. S. Eliot, you came a bit later, 
     Or, I would have liked to know you better.

I guess I did not do too badly, because years later, my sister-in-law, Dum, actually borrowed my Paper on Coleridge for her teaching.
Surprise!

You may ask me what I intended to do after graduation. 
I would have told you that I did not know. 
In my days, girls were not expected to have careers. My three choices were; teaching, nursing, or being a secretary. Nursing was out of the question - first, I was not good in science; also I could not stand blood or sickness. Besides, my father certainly would not approve. Girls from my family did not become nurses. (I know it is an old-fashioned way of thinking, but you have to remember that I was born a long time ago.) That left teaching or becoming a secretary. I couldn't imagine myself being a teacher, but I thought I could be an executive secretary. Actually one of my fellow students did. She worked for Prince Phillip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II. 

Truth be told, most of us girls majored in MRS - finding a husband. I am not kidding you!

Really and truly, I had wanted to be a Fashion Designer. I loved making clothes that no body else had. However, they did not offer those courses at the university, and my father said, "NO!"
(Later, I did realize that there were a few other choices that I could have made. I did not know then.)

So, here I was with Coleridge. 

A footnote: I do like Wordsworth, Yeats, Browning, Keats, and many others.