Preview

An Explication of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Kahn

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2362 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Explication of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Kahn
Explication n°4 : “Kubla Khan »

Kubla Khan, one of the most famous poem of English literature, is written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797 and was published in Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep in 1816. Kubla Khan is one of the most important poem of Coleridge and, according to the preface of the book, he wrote it during the time that he passed in a farm house between Porlock and Linton in England. Because of the opium that he had taken - prescribed to him to cure dysentery, Coleridge felt asleep when he was reading a story about Kubla Khan, which led to his dream and his poem. Coleridge said that, while he was asleep, “images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions”. When he woke up, he kept the clear and accurate memories of what he had just seen in his dream and immediately started writing a poem from it. Unfortunately, he was interrupted by an inhabitant of the town, “A person from Porlock” who interfered with his process of writing. No one knows who he was or why he had disturbed Coleridge but the person from Porlock became an expression which is now used to refer to an unwanted person who interrupts the process of inspiration. Because of this visit, Coleridge forgot almost everything of the dream he had as the preface says “all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! Without the after restoration of the latter”.
At the first reading, we understand that the poem talks about the mongol emperor Kubilaï Khan, creator of the Yuan dynasty, and his summer palace in Shangdu - Coleridge calls it Xanadu. Then, we get the impression that the poem presents the theme of the powerless and fragility of writing. Through the dream, we notice the problem of imagination and the result on the paper, the problem of the gap between what he dreamed of and what he wrote. Coleridge, in this poem, exploits the theme of the fantastic, strange

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: sbee, S. (2006) Approaching Poetry, Milton Keynes, The Open UniversityReid, N. (2006) Coleridge, Form and Symbol, Or the Ascertaining Vision, Aldershot, Ashgate PublishingWellek, R. (1963) The Concept of Romanticism in literary historyin Bygrave, S (2006) Romantic Writings London, The Open UniversityZuk, E. Coleridges Blank Verse [online], http://www.expansivepoetryonline.com/journal/cult072004.html (Accessed 28th April 2008)…

    • 1723 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem itself it a lot alike to a detective story as Armitage forces the reader to try and figure out what is going on. Armitage also forces the readers to make their own judgements on the man described and what has happened to him, to a certain extent.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Gothic introduces a genre that both influenced Romantic poetry and inits day for outstripped it in popularity.This topic cluster explores signs of Gothic influence in some of the most frequently read works of Coleridge.For example, the account of the skeleton ship and crew's reaction in Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before the actual narrative of the poem begins, the reader is presented with a Latin epigraph taken from Burnet’s "Archaeologiae Philosophicae" (1692). The main theme taken from this quotation is that one must maintain a balance between acknowledging the imperfect, temporal world, yet also striving to understand the ethereal and ideal world of spirits, ghouls and ghosts in order to reach an eventual understanding of the truth. Coleridge uses this quotation in order to remind the reader to pay attention to the near-constant interactions between the real world and the spiritual world in the poem, and like the Ancient Mariner, the reader must explore and navigate these interactions in order to understand the truth behind the poem.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human Condition Essay

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Samuel Coleridge’s “Dejection: an Ode,” is a poem describing a man’s torment as he attempts to overcome his dispirited state as a result of the loss of a romantic relationship. The poem highlights the importance of creativity within humanity through the persona’s struggle to maintain joyous after the loss of such ability, presenting the fact that without creativity, we would become susceptible to the negative aspects of the world. Beginning the poem using pathetic fallacy, Coleridge relates the persona’s reality to the growing storm, which through describing the “dull pain” received from his loss, highlights the duality present within our emotions, and hence the idea that we have the ability to experience both love as much as we do despair. The poet again reinforces our vulnerability to reality by using a metaphor to describe how it “coils around my mind,” presenting the fact that without hope and optimism, reality can hinder our creativity. Describing that he was born with a “shaping spirit of imagination,” the persona alludes to the idea that humanity maintains the ability to bring about their own happiness, which as a whole, demonstrates to the audience that life can only ever be worth living when we have found our own contentment and joy, as encountered only through our imaginative pursuits. As the poem concludes, the importance of maintaining happiness is reiterated as the persona wishes his lover…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The poem is about the nature of creativity. Coleridge describes the dome of pleasure which he sees in his dream while he is opium- induced. While he was sick, doctor prescribed a drug that made him drowsy. He could remember only couple of images, which he later developed into a beautiful poem. During his sleep knocking on the door interrupted him, and he could never recapture the dream because he lost the inspiration. This poem is considered to be a fragment but it seems that Kubla Khan is carefully worked using illusions from the works Coleridge was reading at the time.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cited: Coleridge, Samuel. English Romantic Poetry. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1996. 102-04. Print.…

    • 1664 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thorough Analysis of the poem; The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot, by studying the Speaker/Narrator, The Setting, Characters and Themes.…

    • 5385 Words
    • 22 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    'The Pains of Sleep ' is written in the first person present tense from the point of view of an un-named narrator; which may (or may not) be the author. However, the nightmares and sleep disruption described in the poem are symptomatic of withdrawal from opiate addiction, an affliction from which Coleridge was known to suffer, and it is prudent to assume that it is the poet who speaks in this poem. The use of a first person present narrative gives this poem an intimate, almost conversational tone and allows the reader to feel as though they are taking part in a dialogue with the poet.…

    • 1287 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Samuel Taylor Coleridge is often discussed in association with his peer, William Wordsworth. This is due in part to their friendship and joint ventures on works such as Lyrical Ballads. Although he is often “paired” with his counterpart Wordsworth, there are several differences in Coleridge’s poetic style and philosophical views. Coleridge’s poetry differs from that of Wordsworth, and his association with Wordsworth overshadows Coleridge’s individual accomplishments as a Romantic poet. In addition, Coleridge’s poetry complicates experiences that Wordsworth views as very simple and very commonplace. Samuel Taylor Coleridge has a poetic diction unlike that of William Wordsworth, he relies more heavily on imagination for poetic inspiration, and he also incorporates religion into his poetry differently. Coleridge’s different views, combined with his opium addiction, led to an eventual breach in his friendship with Wordsworth – a friendship that had begun in 1797.…

    • 3622 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Analyzing these poems, you can easily come to a conclusion that authors are in a conflict with the outer world. But the nature and the roots of the conflict differ each author and each poem has its own story of the war against the universe and the story of the pain, caused to him or to her by this world. Thus, talking about each poem, in particular, we notice the more than specific and purely pessimistic way of the all the author's way of expression. Nevertheless, we, also, pay attention to the each author writing manner. These manners can be explained by three main factors. By revenge, by a crush of the world and by the main hero death.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem flows through various images, each allowing the reader to become further immersed in its haunting melody. Readers experience the river’s “ceaseless turmoil seething” (17) and hear the “woman wailing for her demon-lover” (16) further adding to the wonder of the poem. Moreover, it appears living, breathing as it cascades forward only to find an abrupt stop. This standstill creates numerous questions concerning the intentions behind “Kubla Khan’s” fragmented nature and the purpose behind…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The compelling poem “The Eolian Harp’ written by Samuel Coleridge is a poem of medium length, yet by no means a straight forward poem. Its message and ideals are elevated and hidden through Coleridge’s subtle capitalization of words, the pantheism riddled across the poem, and allusions of mythology and bible verses. However, this poem of wind, nature, music, and God is one of the most beautiful poems of the Romantic era because of its superior poetic usage of terms.…

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The composer that will be presented in this project is an Afro-British composer named Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Coleridge-Taylor was known for his famous compositions around the United Kingdom towards the United States. He was first acknowledged as a violinist, pianist, poet and singer at a young age, but throughout his lifetime, he was well-known for his compositions from the Royal College of Music to Trinity College of Music to being known globally. In speaking of the Trinity College of Music, did you know he became a professor of composition for seven years? Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s story is a very interesting piece from his younger years to his death.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kubla Khan: Finished?

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Following line 36, there is a clear change in writing from the author. Not only does he change his point of view from third person to first person, but he also changes the tone which shows that he is retreating from his Xanadu. This creates a clear distinction between Coleridge's original poem (lines 1 through 36) and what he later added on as a conclusion (lines 37 through 54). The last two stanzas can be seen as Coleridge's longing to gain his vision of Xanadu once again and complete his original work. When looking at the entire poem from that perspective, it is a complete idea. There is no need to extend the poem after the final line 54 since the author can not revive what he already lost.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays