Introduction to the English literature - Coleridge's imagined Paradise described in Kubla Khan.

Authors Avatar

Introduction to the English literature

ANN – 112

Coleridge’s imagined Paradise described in Kubla Khan

Judit Sztáray

[email protected]

01.12.2004.


KUBLA KHAN

Or A Vision In A Dream

(1798-1816)

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 here 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.

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:
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!

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,
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.


Coleridge’s imagined Paradise described in Kubla Khan

Coleridge was one of the most famous romantic poets next to Wordsworth. His work of art represents many aspects and traits of the romantic period. Besides Coleridge’s ‘conversation’ poems and the ballads, his famous poems can be categorized as the visionary poems. Probably the most well-known poem of this group is the Kubla Khan. Since Coleridge suffered great pain during his life he used laudanum, opium dissolved in alcohol, and became addicted to it. This poem describes a vision that he gained during an opium dream, as the poet wrote in the short preface of this poem, and clearly shows Coleridge’s unique and outstanding ability to paint the images of nature and the supernatural. In this poem the reader can imagine the ideal and natural beauty of the world and also the imagined Paradise that Coleridge has created. This essay will focus on the main analysis of this poem with special attention to the images that are developed throughout and the poetical aid of the sounds and word-repetitions.

In the first section the paradise has been decreed. In the first five lines the author introduces the man, Kubla Khan. His real name was Kublai Khan and he was “the fifth of the Mongol great khans” with great power. He had a summer residence, called Shang-tu, which can be translated as Upper Capital, and it has been degenerated and simplified to “Xanadu” in Coleridge’s poem.  According to his declaration a “pleasure dome” has to be built, in which there will be space for different kinds of enjoyment. The words “decree” and “dome” give the reader a stately feeling from the start. In lines three to five the author introduces the landscape, the reader can picture Xanadu as a place with numerous natural beauties and also with several mysteries. Coleridge starts his picture with the “Alph”, the classical underground river, which can automatically be associated with the Greek first letter, alpha, which symbolises the beginning of life. This river goes underground and runs through gigantic caves till it reaches a dark and deep place. Bearing this picture in mind the word “sacred” in the third line means not only holy, but also the something connected with a god of the underworld. Also the use of the alliteration and the sound repetition strikes out from the first couple of lines of the poem. The sounds ‘m’ and ‘n’, ‘d’ and ‘r’ and the ‘s’ are quite easy to notice even if they are not in the beginning of the words, and the vowels are mostly open. These all give emphasis to the unique and interesting adjectives that the poet uses when picturing the Paradise.

Join now!

In the next six lines Coleridge extends the description of the landscape. Xanadu should be built in 10 miles area with rich soil, which is surrounded by walls and towers. As a consequence of the “fertile ground” the author describes the ideal landscape, where the gardens are light and the creeks are meandering, and there are green sunny fields which are encompassed by the ancient, large trees. The different adjectives represent different shades or colours, for instance “bright” and “sunny’ means extremely light, “blossomed’ suggests the different intensive colours of the spring and “greenery” represents the various tones of green.

...

This is a preview of the whole essay