Herein lies the organic relations between the two parts. . Coleridge believed that poetry produces a state in the reader that is akin to dreaming, but also compatible with the waking Judgement. They will experience a kind of fear as one feels in the presence of God. Here Coleridge is dealing with the theory of poetic inspiration. The sacred river, Alph winding its course through immeasurably deep caves ultimately to sink into a dark subterranean sea. 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.
Then, according to Coleridge, he was interrupted, following which he was unable to continue what he had dreamed as a long, narrative piece. And lo, he stays, And soon the fragments dim of lovely forms Come trembling back, unite, and now once more The pool becomes a mirror. It is about poetry and poetic inspiration. On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. 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! Toward the end, the poem becomes more personal and mysterious, as the speaker describes past visions he has had. A fertile tract of land, about ten square miles in area was enclosed with walls and towers.
He doesn't want to just duplicate them, he wants his poetry to be them. The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. In one vision, he saw an Abyssinian maid playing on her dulcimer and singing of the wild splendour of Mount Abora. Then it sinks into the sunless sea with a loud noise. The speaker then goes on to describe Kubla Khan himself, who is listening to this noisy river and thinking about war.
There is a chain of ambiguous and paradoxical aspects of poetry and philosophy. The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. About Samuel Taylor Coleridge Coleridge and his friend William Wordsworth were leading figures in the English Romantic movement. In the midst of this noise, Kubla Khan could hear the ancestral voices predicting a war. In this final stanza, we encounter the speaker himself.
Lines 6-11 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. Kubla Khan, the great oriental king once ordered that a magnificent pleasure dome be built for him in Xanadu as his summer capital. 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. From the immediate start of the poem, the reader finds themselves subjected to interpret these hidden symbols. They acted under the influence of Dionysus. 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! Kubla khans power over the empire is actually the power over his mind. While standing here, one could hear the mingled noises from the fountain and the caves.
Within this man-decreed creation are natural creations such as the river that bursts from the earth. Socretes in his Ion compares lyric poets to 'Bacchie maidens who drew milk and honey from the rivers'. The poem has thus progressed from the creations of Kubla Khan to the even more magical actions of nature. 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. Together, they produced the radical experiments in style and content found in the Lyrical Ballads of 1798. The creative act is never ideal. The second part is related to divine aspect of poetry.
At this stanza break, the subject shifts from the imagined Xanadu to the speaker, a poet who brings himself into the poem. And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! The similarity of the dreams hints of a plan. This poem describes Xanadu, the palace of Kubla Khan, a Mongol emperor and the grandson of Genghis Khan. 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. Coleridge is an adept master in the realm of supernatural poetry and he is indebted to Spencer and medieval metrical romance.
Just a fantastic poem to read and read again. Yet from the still surviving recollections in his mind, the Author has frequently purposed to finish for himself what had been originally, as it were, given to him: but the to-morrow is yet to come. This brings him to a final image of a terrifying figure with flashing eyes. The narrator, as with a poet, is inspired by a muse, the Abyssinian maid, and wants to re-create her song. The first part is concerned with the relation of man to nature.
It makes this image just a little lonelier. It introduces us to the title character Kubla Khan , and begins to describe the amazing setting of the poem Xanadu. Like Xanadu, art offers a refuge from the chaos. Given the backstory, many critics read the poem as a meditation on the frustrations of the creative act. 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 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. And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! According to Purchas, Mount Abora was a place of overwhelming natural beauty—another Xanadu, one might say. Kubla Khan, a vision in a dream is a fragmentary dream poem.
The 'flashing eyes' and 'floating hair' of Coleridge's poem belong to a poet in the fury of creation. His flashing eyes, his floating hair! The king feared the prospect of revolt by the non-heirs. 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. There may be many analysts for it but to me the name itself depicts the drama of life. So there are verbal resemblances in the versions of Plato, Shakespeare and Coleridge. Wordsworth concerned himself with nature and human nature and Coleridge often wrote dream poems under the influence of opium and the poems also appeared to be fragmentary.
