I want to start this out by saying that I’m operating on very little sleep, so this posting may not make a whole lot of sense. Bear with me. J
In the preface to “Kubla Khan,” Coleridge claims that the
poem is incomplete – that he wrote it while high on opium, and after being
interrupted, he couldn’t remember the rest of the drug-induced dream he
had. Reading it, I couldn’t decide
whether it was a fragment or not. The
ending certainly felt abrupt, but
that could be intentional. It also
definitely felt dreamlike, if not nightmarish.
“Kubla Khan” reminded me a bit of the mini-poem within the
Poe story, “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
Roderick Usher composes a song – I think it’s called “The Haunted Palace”
– about a castle that, once prosperous and joyful, has fallen into gloomy times
as its lord goes mad, and its inhabitants with him. It ends, “A hideous throng rush out forever,
and laugh – but smile no more.” The poem
symbolizes the decay of Usher’s mind and sanity, as well as the downfall of
their family and the titular house itself.
The similarity between the two poems is in their mood, the way they make
the reader feel. Both come from a dream
that the speaker had, and have a surreal quality – vivid, frightening images
and bizarre occurences. In the “Usher”
poem, the castle takes on a life of its own, embodying the state of mind of its
lord. In “Kubla Khan,” the balmy “pleasure-dome”
has “caves of ice”, and the “chasm” is haunted by a woman mourning her “demon-lover.” Both poems have elements of magic and the
supernatural, and of inanimate things becoming “alive.” I believe Poe was inspired by the English
romantic poets, Coleridge in particular, so I guess the similarities are not
surprising.
One thing that stood out to me is how uneven “Kubla Khan”
looks on the page. Some of the lines are
much longer than others, and the shorter lines are indented. The first stanza, “In Xanadu…sunless sea,”
has 5 short lines (8, 8, 8, 8, 6 syllables).
The second stanza also has 5 lines, but they’re longer (9-11
syllables). The third is 19 lines, all
at least 12 syllables. Then the first
four lines of the fourth stanza are indented, and shorter; the last two, longer
and not indented. The fifth and final
stanza starts indented, with 8 short lines, 6-8 syllables. The last 4 lines are the same length (6-8
syllables), but not indented.
Shorter stanzas and shorter lines, are meant to be spoken
quickly, while long stanzas with long lines force the reader to slow down. Thus, the tempo of “Kubla Khan” varies
considerably. It starts off quick, with
the brief description of Kubla’s “pleasure-dome,” then slows down, describing
the chasm and the wailing woman in more detail, then speeds up at the end, as
the speaker describes his vision of the “Abyssinian maid” and his longing to
recreate the music she played. In the
last lines, the rhyme becomes irregular.
The poem varies between AABB, ABAB, ABBA, and ABAAB. The last 9 lines, however, are
ABAAABCCB. The irregular rhyme scheme
makes those lines stand out, jolting the reader out of complacency and forcing
them to pay attention. The last stanza
is in the first person, the speaker referring to himself as “I,” inserting
himself into the world of the dream, Kubla Khan’s garden. The increasing speed and rhyme irregularity
end the poem on a high note of emotion, giving the impression that the speaker
has grown hysterical or a bit crazy. The
frenzied ending adds to the surreal quality of the poem and lends credence to
the possibility that “Kubla Khan” is not a fragment but a complete work, as the
poet’s vision of himself with “flashing eyes” telling the story of his dream
seem like a real climax.
All in all, “Kubla Khan” definitely seems to be an example
of “the sublime.” The textbook footnote
calls it “a visionary poem of demonic inspiration,” and I would say that’s a
fair description. Wordsworth’s
definition of poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” is
perfect for “Kubla Khan,” which is emotion carefully crafted into words.
Whether it was done purposely or not, I definitely agree that the end of "Kubla Khan" feels frenzied. I thought the references to inspired poets within the last four lines were extremely interesting. First, line 51 which mentions "a magic ritual, to protect the inspired poet from intrusion." This line suggests that the poet hoped to finish the poem by remaining within the circle of protection. Line 54 is even more interesting, "And drunk the milk of Paradise" alluding to the opium that was responsible for this vivid dream. Once he is no longer high from the drug he cannot fully draw inspiration from the dream, like the maidens who only take milk and honey when they are under the influence. I believe that the speaker is acknowledging that he will not be able to finish the poem when he is sober, especially if he is interrupted while writing. This ending adds another level to the poem, the speaker while he is sobering up and recognizing the chaos that he has just experienced.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the end of this poem is very abrupt. I absolutely think that it was done on purpose. I feel like Coleridge felt some type of way about being "interrupted" when he was trying to get his thoughts from his dream onto the paper.
ReplyDeleteI think it is also funny that Mackenzie says the poet can not finish this dream without being intoxicated, while Katie mentions this poem reminds her of "The Fall of the House of Usher." Both poets being obviously fond of drugs and alcohol, it seems fitting that one would follow the same creative writing techniques as the other. Perhaps what I should have blogged about is that this is a very chaotic experience for the poet as well as a visual one & in this case I feel like the poet had a very wonderful experience while dreaming the dream but was awoken too soon. And we all know how it feels to wake up from a good dream much to early.
Reading Coleridge, especially THIS poem, drove me crazy. The entire time I found myself exerting a serious amount of effort to understand what he was trying to say. It was as if I constantly was trying to catch up with the whirlwind of a dream that he was describing, but as it was so personal to him, I could only grasp it to a certain extent. As you pointed out, the rhythm is highly irregular in the poem as is most of the rhyme scheme. I think these two points are what contributed to my constant confusion. It was difficult to get into the swing of reading it as every line was so irregular. In this way, I felt that Coleridge successfully simulated the bizarre nature of dreams. How many times have you had a dream where crazy events happen - people show up out of no where, animals talk, the apocalypse happens but you don't QUESTION it while you are sleeping. It is only after you are awake that you realize how actually insane and impossible the dream was. By writing this in the manner in which he did, Coleridge seems to recreate what it is like to exist in a world without limits. The irregularity of the entire piece even suggests to me that it was somewhat written as a stream of consciousness - a quickly scribbled down piece of work that tries to recall as much as Coleridge can grasp before the scenes of his dream fades away.
ReplyDelete