A Visit to Xanadu
“Kubla Khan” is quite possibly
one of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's most famous poems of his career.
Aside from captivating readers for several years, it has both stunned
and astounded scholars and critics alike. It is an unfinished
poem, like most of
Coleridge's poems, and a poem that
seems to have no literal meaning on first glance, yet many
theoretical meanings can be perceived from repeated readings. This
writeup will attempt to highlight just what exactly has cause so much
time and effort to go into deciphering what, upon first glance, sounds
like
the ridiculous ravings of a madman.
The first logical place to start would be to examine
the layered
symbolism within the poem itself. As one critic states,
“Coleridge was 'thinking of himself in terms of the serene and powerful
Kubla.' The pleasure-dome is the bower into which Coleridge retired by
means of opium. But this retreat is not perfectly secure, for there
were the prophecies of war. These Mr. Graves suggests may have been, on
one plane of symbolism, Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd prophesying an
evil fate for the drug taker; on another they were 'probably' the
actual threat to England from the war with France, under which 'it was
hardly the duty of an Englishman, even a genius, to bury himself far
off in the West Country and weaken his spirit with opium”(Coleridge,
Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 239). Coleridge, waking from an opium
induced dream, awoke a began writing the poem from what he could still
retain in his memory. It is strange to think that any intentional
literal meaning could have stemmed from such an accidental meeting of
pen and paper. Another critical opinion of the poem says that
“The poem
shows us that 'Coleridge has determined to shun the mazy complications
of life by retreating to a bower of poetry, solitude, and opium.' The
Abyssinian maid is an unidentified beloved who usually lay beside him
in his opium dream. The caves of ice may represent the purely
intellectual character of the poet's attachment to Dorothy
Wordsworth”(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 239). Some theories
state that the meaning behind the symbolism in Kubla Khan is much more
personal than it may at first seem. This is not the first of
Coleridge's poems to contain mention of the “
Abyssinian maid”. Finally,
one more example of Coleridge's imagery being examined is when the
critic says
“The figure with 'flashing eyes' and 'floating hair' in the
final lines Lowes traced to a confluence of Bruce's king of Abyssinia,
whose hair on one occasion floated, and the 'youths' who were followers
of Aloadin—an impersonal mysterious figure beheld by Coleridge in his
dreams”(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 245). The symbolism
Coleridge uses in this poem is incredibly deep, and seems to be, for
the most part, pulled directly from is opium dreams.
The second factor about this poem that has attracted
so much attention is the fact that it forever remains uncompleted, as
the idea was lost by Coleridge. One critic states
“However much of
little of a plan Coleridge may have had, the fragment as it stands
perhaps carries within itself the seeds of its own early collapse. The
author could hardly sustain it, one feels, and if he could the reader
could not”(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 252). The very
beginning of this poem is so detailed and in depth that if it had been
the staggering work that Coleridge claimed it would have been in its
finished form, if he did manage to write such a poem, the reader would
almost certainly be lost in the details. Another opinion of the poem in
its unfinished form is when a critic states
“A narrative poet almost of
necessity lets the reader into his tale more thinly, with his matter
spaced more widely; or if the opening texture is extremely rich the
pace will be slower, more leisurely or more dignified, as in Paradise
Lost and Lycidas. The movement of Kubla Khan is rather swift, yet its
texture is fully as elaborate as that of Lycidas, without the retarding
gravity and the uncrowded, fully explored imagery with which the poem
opens”(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 252). To have a longer poem
the author must reveal the details slowly, so that the poem can
continue. If Coleridge could have finished this poem, it may have
destroyed itself by complicating the story line with an
overexertion
of imagery. Finally, the critic states
“I question whether Coleridge or
any poet could have continued it without producing either anticlimax or
surfeit. It is impertinent, however, to suggest what a poet could or
could not do; and it is idle anyhow to worry the question of whether
Kubla Khan is unfinishable or merely unfinished”(Coleridge, Opium, and
Kubla Khan, page 252). The poem, whether it is possible that it could
have been completed or not, in reality is not. It should be looked at
and examined as a fragment, though not necessarily a bad thing as
Coleridge's career revolved around many unfinished poems.
A final characteristic of “Kubla Khan” is the
musical tone that the poem follows. For example, one critic points out
that
“The pattern of Kubla Khan, however, is not confined to the
æ-sounds. The rhyme, with all its freedom, its shiftings and
Lycidas-like “oscillations,” has elaborate hidden correspondences. The
rhyme scheme of the opening seven lines, for example, is exactly
repeated in the first seven lines of the second paragraph. The
extraordinary elaboration, also, of the assonance keeps the music of
this poem fresh through many re-readings”(Kubla Khan, page 88). The
poetic style that Coleridge uses throughout “Kubla Khan” keeps the
reader from getting bored and the poem becoming redundant. Also, the
critic continues,
“The most obvious of the patterns in the opening
lines, apart from the ubiquity of the æ-sounds, is the
alliteration that closes each of the first five lines: “Kubla Khan,”
“dome decree,” “river ran,” “measureless to man,” “sunless sea”---a
revival of the device Coleridge had practiced so conspicuously in his
Spenserian-Miltonic verse of 1795”(Kubla Khan, page 89). “Kubla Khan”
signified the recurrence of a writing style that Coleridge had
practiced well. A writing style that also helped to, in a sense,
characterize “Kubla Khan.” A final critical analysis of Coleridge's
writing style is stated “This device, used skillfully as it is here and
partly concealed by the
interlacing of other patterns, contributes to
something to the floating effect of the whole, for the
assonance
softens the impact of the rhyme and so lessens its tendency to bring
the line to earth at the close: the terminal rhyme does not settle so
heavily upon the mind when its emphasis has been partly stolen by its
preceding shadow”(Kubla Khan, page 90). The musical attributes found
within the poem, creatively mixed with other types of interlacing
patterns, help to give “Kubla Khan” a little bit of its longevity.
Many attributes have made “Kubla Khan” a long time
favorite among scholars and poetry enthusiasts alike. The fact that it
remains unfinished seems little more than another alley to explore, and
has led to many speculations about what Coleridge was trying to convey
and what direction he could have been heading with the poem. Both the
musical style and the layered imagery also help with it's popularity,
and have led to many speculations of the true meaning of the poem, and
what the illustrations represent. Although criticized by many as
nothing more than
the incomprehensible ramblings of an opium addict, it
is hard to deny that Coleridge knew what he was doing when he began
writing “Kubla Khan”, and did it very well.
Sources:
- "Opium, Coleridge, and Kubla Khan": Published in Textbook Binding
by Octagon
Books (May, 1983). Author: Elisabeth Schneider