Kubla Khan
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Summary
I) Romantic aspects of the poem
A)
B)
C)
Nature, a “stately pleasure-dome”
Love and Man’s relationship with Nature
A divine place
II) Imagination and Blake/Frankenstein
A)
B)
C)
Double vision of the world
Industrialisation
An ambivalent poem
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.
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
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!
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:
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.
Biography
-
-
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in 1772 in
Devon, England and died in 1834. His father, a
vicar of a parish and master of a grammar school,
married twice and had fourteen children. The
youngest child in the family, Coleridge was a
student at his father’s school and an avid reader.
After his father died in 1781, Coleridge attended
Christ’s Hospital School in London, where he met
lifelong friend Charles Lamb.
Originally supposed to be a clergyman like his
father.
-
Philosopher, poet, literary critic; educated at Cambridge
Unhappy marriage to a woman he didn’t love (the woman he did love was
already taken at that point) and huge financial debt his whole life.
Coleridge was a founder of the English Romantic Movement.
Most famous poems: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan"
(the latter reportedly written under the influence of opium)
Notable friends: William Wordsworth and Lord Byron, Charles Lamb (lifelong
and childhood friend)
Introduction
●
Poem originally written in 1797, but only revealed to the public when Coleridge decided to read it to his friend Lord
Byron in 1816, the latter immediately insisting upon it being published.
●
Kubla Khan is, as the subtitle indicates, a “vision in a dream, a fragment”. The poem was an opium dream, that he
then put down partially on paper, before being interrupted. He never finished the poem, that was supposed to be
between 300-400 lines long instead of a mere 50.
●
Summary of the plot: not at all linear. Begins by telling the story of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan, who declares
Xanadu (a place north of Beijing, meant to be synonymous with foreign opulence and splendor ) to be a “pleasuredome”. The rest of the poem is a description of this place, until Coleridge abruptly begins to recount another vision
he had, this time of a young “Abyssian” (Ethiopian) girl, before switching back to a rant on Kubla Khan, who is then
portayed as a supernatural entity, that is to be feared and exorcised.
●
The poem is long and complex, with much left to the imagination. Its analysis cannot consequently be extensive, and
we have decided to concentrate on the two main axes we regard as most useful for the Bac:
1)
2)
How the poem links back to the time’s Romantic ideals
The idea of imagination, and how it can be linked to our synoptic works by William Blake and Mary
Shelley
I- Romantic aspects
A- Nature, “a stately pleasure-dome”
● Kubla Khan depicts his pleasure l3 to l11: omnipresent of Nature - her features
Alliteration of “s” + underground place = echo of “Through caverns measureless to man “
Renewal of Nature “blossomed many an incense-bearing”
● Coledridge refers to the original Nature: the Garden of Eden “gardens bright with sinuous rills,”
Place where knowledge doesn’t have his place and perfect area of pleasure: paradise
● This place exists before Kubla Khan and his dome “forests ancient as the hills“
And will exist after Kubla Khan: idea of immotality “at once and ever“
Hyperbole of “measureless”: Humans have not control on Nature
●
Place of contradiction where everything seem possible A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
● Nature appears as a character “As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,“
Personification of the earth, “pants” could be the flowers/trees present in surface
I- Romantic aspects
B- Love and man’s relationship with Nature
●
An opposition between the male force of the sacred-river and the seven successive feminine
endings of the second stanza
●
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,
By woman wailing for her demon-lover! A supernatural mood, an idea of romance
●
fast thick pants
●
Another enigmatic character : the Ethiopian maid, who inspires a sort of loving admiration in the
narrator (he wants to revive within him her “symphony and song” which give him “deep delight”)
and excitement
= sexual allusion or Nature represented as a living being
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
I- Romantic aspects
C- A divine place
● Xanadu = Garden of Eden surrounded by evil and the constant threat of destruction => “sinuous rills” = snake tempting Eve
-> Ancestral voices prophesying war! = God's warning to not go near the tree, as Eve fell for the snake's charm and persuasion
OR reference to Genghis Khan’s wars
● Alph = sacred character, river of life, beginning of everything, strong creative power (1st letter of greek alphabet)
● Christianity:
-> Reference to Milton’s Paradise Lost: Satan builds the glorious place of Pandemonium = pleasure-dome for fallen angel
“Down to a sunless sea”
”caves of ice!”
+ demon-lover
-> What is outside the “pleasure-dome” is evil = need to protect the beauty of the inside: “walls and towers” are not enough to
protect = “imagination is only a temporary relief from reality”
-> Holy trinity: Weave a circle round him thrice
● Deification of Kubla Khan -> For he on honey-dew hath fed, / And drunk the milk of Paradise. = entitled to share Gods’
pleasure
II- Imagination and Blake/Frankenstein
A- Double vision of the world
● Blake’s Jerusalem: So twice five miles of fertile ground = need to protect this area, just liek the need for building a sacred
place (Jerusalem)
● Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde = Kubla Khan is Coleridge’s dark side ? Some critics also say he looked up to / admired other
leaders’ strength, which goes hand-in-hand with the fact he took great pains to make his readers believe poetry was effortless
for him (causing them to provide him with the same kind of admiration)
●
The whole poem is based on imagination; its subtitle is as a matter of fact “A vision in a dream. A fragment” -> can
thus be linked back to Blake’s vision of the world, where the divine and the real interact (like when he had a vision of
his brother in a tree with angels)
●
Lexical field of religion + some critics say the poem has no real meaning, is nonsensical: it is two visions intertwined as
one, since after the description of the pleasure dome Coleridge abruptly begins to speak of the Abyssian maid (who is
from another vision) before reverting back to Kubla Khan
●
metaphorical personification that Blake also made use of in Auguries of Innocence: “waning moon was haunted” could
symbolize Mother Nature affected by industrialization or other human sins (the moon is haunted by “a woman wailing
for her demon lover”) -> note the reference to the divine, but also the idea that Nature and humanity are one, or at the
very least should live hand-in-hand
II- Imagination and Blake/Frankenstein
B- Industrialisation
● Something threatens Kubla Khan “Ancestral voices prophesying war!”
In the romantic movement, Nature is spoiled by the Industrial Revolution
“War” is always blood and could destroy the pleasure dome
●
“Ancestral voices prophesying” reminds us of the prophetic figure of the bard in Blake’s poetry + in Earth’s
Answer, the bard is seen as the one deploring the chains around Nature (the IR)
Hear the voice of the bard (Songs of innocence - Blake) “Hear the voice of the Bard, Who present, past, and future,
sees;”
● The pleasure-dome is “A savage place! as holy and enchanted”
His description is nearly identical to the introduction to Jerusalem (Blake) - the two places seemto be in
danger and both need protection
“I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,”
II- Imagination and Blake/Frankenstein
C- An ambivalent poem
●
An idea of fascinating beauty, but also dangerous beauty
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran [...] A
savage place!
●
Dangerous and threatening (even dark) aspects of Nature, that contrast with the fact it is
supposed to be a “miracle of rare device”) + link to Frankenstein, with the mountains, seas of
ice, etc. that show Nature’s ambivalence too
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
●
Calm and soft harmony broken by Beware! Beware!
●
Kubla Khan turned into a source of fear whose power has to be warded off (like the creature?)
Weave a circle round him thrice,
Ambivalence with the idea of wonder and terror combined + once again link with Dr Jekyll and
Mr Hyde since Kubla Khan can also maybe be Coleridge’s alter ego, a more vengeful, ferocious
version of him (perhaps when under the influence of opium?)
Conclusion
● Many interpretations are possible (=ambivalent), different layers due to the fact that this poem was
dreamt under opium
● Clear Romantic features: strong attachment to Nature + Man’s ambiguous relationship with it
+ -> Coleridge uses amazingly implicative imagery and allegory to show his romantic ideals of
paganism over Christianity
● Imagination is a key feature, some critics say that there is no true meaning to the poem, Coleridge
wrote it only for the beauty of poetry, and wants his readers to imagine by themselves
+ amazingly complex metaphors and imagery = ambiguous as to suggest that he does not have any
purpose at all