It is really a strange poem, a "psychological curiosity". Don't you think that each poem could be qualified as psychologically unique, something which never looks like something else ?
"Kubla Khan" by Coleridge
It is really a strange poem, a "psychological curiosity". Don't you think that each poem could be qualified as psychologically unique, something which never looks like something else ?
I totally agree with you, but that is the beauty of every poem... to me they never seem what they really are when I first read them... that is what makes me read them more, and fall in love with them every time I read a poem... Kubla Khan has some magic in it... whenever I read it I feel as if I am in a dream, just like Coleridge, and I somehow get confused...but I do like it, though I like The rime of the ancient mariner better.
I like Kubla khan more than Mariner and Frost at midnight (these are the poems we studied this year for igcse in new zealand). Its so much easier to memorise quotes and is full of vivid imagery - fertile and sexual as well as powerful imagery showing the power and fecundating nature of nature and the human imagination. There is also some good use of assonance and alliteration which makes the poem powerful. I find the latter part of the poem, where the speaker's voice enters the poem, a little weak... its not as charming as the first half
The last paragraph sounds quite differently indeed because of the introduction of the first person, which has more to do with something recurrent in Coleridge's poetry, his strong desire of being loved and united to Nature. But the last five lines of the poem ("Beware, Beware ... Paradise"), which get rid of the I, are really powerful, by their strength and their mystery.
Kubla is really two poems - the first part inspired arising out of the dream and written out with the energy of the dreamworld still on it. The second part is after the interruption of the 'person from Purlock' and is Coleridge trying to use his creativity to impose an order on what by then was fading from his mind. The 'join' is obvious. You can see a fairly clear example of the distinction Coleridge tried to make between creativity and inspiration in this poem. Reciting it aloud was a party piece of his.
In Kubla Khan I think Coleridge is really just making an argument about mans relationship with nature. I think he uses feminine qualities to describe nature and sin and destruction to symbolize man. Or maybe Coleridge was really one of the first male feminist poets and Kubla Khan is his way of saying woman is Nature and beautiful and man is Sin and the doom of humanity.
I have to respectfully disagree with you, not that I don't think some poems are psychological but this one definitely isn't. I've heard some people say that before but it's only if you don't know what kind of person Coleridge was. The poem is fairly short and when you read it the first time it makes absolutely no sense, that is why this poem has to be read at least three times to understand a bit of. The main theme of the poem is human's capability of imagination (made clear with "pleasure dome" line) and then the beauty of nature (shown by his description of nature), which are both common themes of the Romanticism period. It's a good poem but the reason why this poem might seem psychological is because it has the appearance of being complex, when in actuality Coleridge wrote this poem while on opium. He was extremely addicted to opium,it even shows in his works. His old works were much better than his newer works and that's because he was on opium like all the time. But regardless he was a good writer and if you haven't read it, read Rime of the Ancient Mariner it's a lot better than this poem.
I do love Kubla Kahn though I wish he'd been able to finish it before being interrupted. The first part flows so beautifully and then you get to the damsel with a dulcimer and it really breaks off almost as a new poem. There's no real continuity in the flow between the two parts which is unfortunate as it is a lovely poem full of gorgeous imagery and an amazing story of a utopia doomed to demise.
Drugs have a powerful sway over the mind...
Ryme of the Ancient Mariner is still my favorite though
Despite apparent absence of consort among the parts, "Kubla Khan" principally speaks of a visionary journey from the decree of " A stately pleasure-dome" to "the milk of Paradise". "A Vision of a Dream" may be fragment but it strictly holds compositeness. Debating apart, "Kubla Khan" as a poem is complete and rounded off.
Last edited by Dipen Guha; 11-12-2009 at 01:17 PM.
" The shadow of the dome of pleasure // Floated midway on the waves"----While reality stood firm on the banks, illusion is in the mirror of the stream of life. Man's planning can be executed but cannot give perpetual lease to all that he erects and engineers. The reflected image is a figurative foreshadowing of the collapse of the present edifice.
Despite the lack of cohesion among the three parts of the poem, it is not packed with meaningless series of images, but they are subject to esoteric reading. The texture is woven fine with myth and truth, and a dream may be productive of conclusive truth. The poet.s mind moves, not from thought to thought, but from image to image, and the logic of a poem is the logic of the imagination. The word "imagination" had taken on a very special meaning during the Romantic Age. The words and references used by Coleridge would come to his mind through the images, which certainly supports the logic of imaginations.
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