Kubla Khan. About this Page. A Map. The Poem

Transcription

1 Kubla Khan About this Page Even amongst poetry, "Kubla Khan" is a particularly disorienting read. Although this page provides moments of analysis and interpretation, it mostly attempts to make sense out of the work and to help a confused reader through it. The analysis doesn't presume to be the sole or final reading of the poem, but tries to stay well within the realm of plausibility. The Poem Sources The Preface Form is Content Perfection Dichotomies Echoes A Map g/wiki/file:john-speed-the- Kingdome-of-China jpg Map of China by John Speed in The Poem 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. (5) So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, (10) Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

2 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 (15) 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 (20) 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 (25) 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! (30) 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, (35) A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

3 A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, (40) 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, (45) 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! (50) 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. Sources Chayes, Irene H. "'Kubla Khan' and the Creative Process." Studies in Romanticism 6.1 (1966): JSTOR. Web. 11 Dec Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Christabel Woodstock, Print. Hühn, Peter. "OUTWITTING SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS: SELF-REFERENCE AND PARADOX IN THREE ROMANTIC POEMS." English Studies 72.3 (1991): Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. Web. 22 Sept Purves, Alan C. "Formal Structure in 'Kubla Khan." Studies in Romanticism 1.3 (1962): JSTOR. Web. 10 Dec Rothman, Richard M. "A Re-Examination of Kubla Khan." The English Journal 55.2 (1966): JSTOR. Web. 10 Dec Analysis

4 The Preface The multitude of disconcordant readings of "Kubla Khan" are in large part due to the dubious preface, "Of the Fragment of Kubla Khan". In it, two major claims are made that, for better or for worse, are affective of the criticism. The first claim is that the author did not write the poem, but that under the influence of "an anodyne [read: opium]...all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without an sensation or consciousness of effort." Coleridge goes on to say that upon awakening he jotted down a series of perfectly recollected lines. This leads to the second claim that while doing so, a visitor from Porlock stopped by and Coleridge was, "detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room...though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purpose of the vision...all the rest had passed away..." The supposed pre-visitation fragment is the verse with which we are left to enjoy. It is up to the reader to choose whether or not read into this preface. If one chooses to do so, many extrapolative questions must be asked. First and foremost, the veracity of the claims given their outlandishness. Should we believe that this fragment is only one component of an unfinished magnum opus and the second stanza is merely Coleridge ruing his failure to fully express and share it? Or maybe, Coleridge was hedging his bets against critics that he was worried may lambast him for faulty poetry. We may also see the preface in relation to the poetry as purposeful and lamentable acknowledgement of a problem that every artist will at some point face: lost or unrealized genius. Irene H. Chayes says, "Confirmed by the special relation the headnote bears to it, 'Kubla Khan' becomes one of the group of Romantic poems...which are concerned quite specifically with the composition of poetry" (p. 4) In this light, "Kubla Khan" is an astutely self-conscious piece. In the preface we see poetic concerns in Coleridge's claim of being merely a conduit and in the "dim recollection of the general purpose" of the poem. The idea was had, but could not be physically manifested, a common pitfall of any artistic craft. In the poem, we see the idea supplemented by the strive for perfection and the lamentations of the third stanza, to be discussed in more depth below. The unknowability of these questions complicates an already complicated poem. But, again, it is up to the reader on whether or not to acknowledge "Of the Fragment of Kubla Khan". If they choose not to do so, there is plenty to discuss over poetic merits alone. In fact, a modern critical sentiment is summarized by Alan C. Purves when he says that there is a, "more moderate view that even though Coleridge may have called the poem a fragment, the poem can still have a total meaning that is not fragmentary" (p. 187). In choosing to read into the preface or not, it is important to realize that in some ways the preface informs the disorienting nature of the first two stanzas. They are dreamlike and may need context the first time through, especially for inexperienced readers of poetry. Indeed, Chayes agrees, "Readers and critics alike often do tacitly accept Coleridge's note as a guide to the content of the poem, even when they reject it as a reliable autobiographical document" (p. 2) It is important in understanding the poem to be aware of the different approaches which can be taken to it. Form is Content It is helpful to see "natural subdivisions" of the poem, especially for a first time reader. Doing so will help in maintaining your bearings and supplementing your understanding. Alan Purves comprehensively identifies and explains them as, "two parts comprising a total of seven sections...the first section (ll. 1-5) gives the location of the dome, the second (6-11) describes the park, the third (12-24) describes the birth of the river, the fourth (25-30) gives the course of the river, the fifth (31-36) returns to the dome in the park, the sixth (37-41) introduces the poet and describes the damsel, and the seventh (42-54) speaks of the poet and his power." (p. 188) Perfection: Notice attention to detail, which, in some ways, grasps at perfection. The first line is the only line in the piece that is entirely symmetrical form-wise, and should be paid special attention to. It is in iambic tetrameter. Syllables Xan and Khan are rhymed along with du and ku. Did, the center of the line, is a palindrome, and repeats the sound of in. Also, consider that Xanadu and Kubla Khan are the two subjects of the line. Xanadu, as these lines describe, is a perfect landscape, a paradise. Kubla Khan has walled it off and made it inaccessible, as was done to Eden biblically.

5 Coinciding with this point, look to the sixth section. Alan Purves notes on the same page that, "The two introductory sections (I and VI) have the same number of lines and similar rhyme schemes." These are not the only structurally recurring patterns, "The two sections describing the work decreed by Kubla (II and V) are 'mirror images' of each other in V's reversal of II's rhyme and line length...the two long sections, both dealing with forces of creation, are equal in length...section IV, the middle one which links the river to the dome, bears similarity to II and V in rhyme scheme. The structure is virtually complete." What is the implication of the perfection of Xanadu being replicated "virtually completel[y]" in the formal structure of the poem? Are minor digressions for the sake of flow and better wording, a statement on the larger theme of perfection or nothing at all? Dichotomies: The common trope of light versus dark has been incorporated into the poem in a refreshing way. It does not portray good and evil, or knowledge and lack thereof; but instead the conscious and the subconscious, the obtainable and the unobtainable. We often see its implementation used in the relation to the landscape, which Chayes posits, "with its descending levels would be the mind as structure, and the processes within it, summed up in the flowing of the river, 'meandering with a mazy motion,' the mind as activity" (p. 7) The first place the theme is seen is in the bright interior within the walls of Xanadu. It is a sunny pleasure-dome (36) with sunny spots of greenery (12). The lit portion is paradisiacal. Alph, the sacred river, runs through this picaresque landscape, until suddenly it enters a chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething and caverns measureless to man. At this point, the river becomes completely inaccessible to the man. It is too vast, too dark for human understanding. Coleridge describes this place as "haunted" and refers to the "wailing woman". There is a hollow, echoing sense to this place. The only light here is a waning moon, the past progressive tense telling the reader that the only light left is a fading one, being lost as time continues apathetically onward. Another key points is that the walls encompassing sunny Xanadu cast a shadow on the sunless sea, the lifeless ocean. This is a moment of paradise physically interacting with the space outside of it just by the shadow it casts. This creates a contrast between Xanadu's "fertile ground /...gardens bright with sinuous rills / Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree". The contrast between light and dark parallels that of life and death. Through these contrasts, Coleridge is grappling the problem of having a stroke of genius, and then losing touch with the idea. The final two sections of the poem bring us back to the act of artistic creation in relation to Kubla Khan's creation of Xanadu. The dream, which came to him in his subconscious, is difficult to grasp. Critic Hühn explains, The artist-speaker self-reflexively refers to...his present inability to recreate. This reflexive voice uses language that shows discontent, Could I revive within me / Her symphony and her song, / to such a deep delight 'twould win me... / I would build that dome in air (p. 5). There is a longing to recall the music of the Abyssinian made, because only the music can help him build the pleasure-dome. Consider the many ways in which contrast occurs in the poem (light and dark, mirroring in the form, serenity and turmoil). Is the idea of them being a metaphor for the subconscious agreeable? What else is Coleridge doing with these dichotomies? Echoes: Although the imagery of the poem is overtly apparent, and undeniably well-done, sound arguably plays an equally important role. There are many implied moments of echoing. The reader is put in the setting of a cavern, then bombarded with words and phrases such as: wailing, rebounding, tumult, ancestral voices, "heard the mingled measure". Echoing then, may remind the reader of things that are distant, with unknown origins. We can also see them as faded simulacrums of an Original Sound, much in the same way Coleridge is attempting to pen his supposed dream.

6 This is particularly important because of the final two sections, where the poet begins to try to remember the beautiful sounds the maid sang and played. If he could recall them, "I would build that dome in air, / That sunny dome! those caves of ice!" In other words if he could recall them, he would achieve a perfections similar to that of Xanadu. In Richard Rothman's "A Re-examination of Kubla Khan", he says, "he feels he has not succeeded in communicating that which we also aim at in interpretive reading: sensory perception of the images by the audience. But certainly he despairs that his exultation and exaltation were not enough to transpose and communicate though to us the sights and sounds he wished to build" (p. 171). This can be seen in lines 31-34: from the water, you can hear the fountain, the end of Alph which pours into the ocean, but the sound is unclear as it pangs off the caves of ice. This imagery connotes Coleridge s frustration at his inability to recall the rest of the poem, a feat which he equates to drinking the milk of Paradise. Sounds occur in other places in the poem, particularly in sections covering the path of the river. What purpose do they serve and how is Coleridge using them?