This is Margarita's essay, which she sent to me way back on January 14th of this year. I've been a slacker lately. There are probably some serious formatting problems here, but that's my fault, not hers. And thanks again, Margarita!

Introduction


Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan” is one of the most controversial Romantic poems. The first reaction after reading it is of astonishment. Nobody knows what it ultimately means. Its pervasive use of symbols seems to be as enigmatic as hieroglyphs due to the infinite possibilities that they have. However, all of them have deep connections with the subconscious processes and the primal forces of Nature that live within us. In fact, Coleridge himself regarded this poem as “a psychological curiosity”. This is a very reliable base to build an approach on. Coleridge tried to play down the importance of his work with this initial warning. Nevertheless, he deals with deep themes such as inspiration, creativeness and the loss of paradise. It is, indeed, a psychological curiosity, but it unravels more than the author’s state of mind under the effects of opium.

Among all the possible subjects that we can find in “Kubla Khan”, I want to focus on two of them: the sublime and the author-inspiration relationship. The sublime is one of the best known Romantic features. All the writers of this period wrote on it or reflected its effects in their work. This poem is in itself a very good example of the sublime, and also a daring attempt to put it into words. The rich, imaginative references that it contains the sensual burst of life that it depicts and the several exclamation points in it are evidences of this.

On the other hand, the relationship between the author and its work appears as the main thematic thread of this poem. It consists of three stanzas corresponding to three different scenes: the Khan’s pleasure estate, the dreadful shakings of Nature disturbing his paradise and the damsel with a dulcimer that helps the poet to revive all the previous scenes. They do not seem to have much in common. They can actually be seen as independent inspiration outbursts joint together with no apparent reason. Nevertheless, it clearly follows the pattern by which an artist gets inspired. Some authors see in its structure the Hegelian scheme of thesis-antithesis-synthesis (1). It is quite interesting if we only want to analyze it formally or see it through a classic viewpoint. But I see here more than a simple collection of images or a reflection of the poet’s moods. Coleridge wrote it “from a consciousness loosed from considerations of rational order” (2). Its tone is also quite mythic. This reason explains why it has to be looked further, to be seen as a whole symbol in itself.

Coleridge subtitled it “A vision in a dream. A fragment”. This affirmation has made many critics consider why has he left it unfinished and what would have happened if he had finished it. In my opinion, he was actually trying to continue writing, but he got interrupted and lost his inspiration. I think this is a complete poem in itself. J. A. Howard says: “Beware of people who cry over this poem because he never finished it…”This is a great poem!” we say. “It’s fun. It’s full of symbols. What more do you want?””(3). All polemics on this issue of the status of “Kubla Khan as a fragment are, under my viewpoint, unnecessary. This poem is great and deep enough to work on the verses that we have.


The sublime

Romantic authors saw the sublime as something unseen that goes beyond our capabilities. This can be found in Nature, in its manifestations. But we can also find it inside ourselves, or even seem sublime to the eyes of the others. These two versions appear in “Kubla Khan”. They are interwoven in the way in which inspiration works, but I will deal with this more deeply in the next section.

Nature is undoubtedly the main source of sublime experiences. We are but a little part of it. When we compare ourselves with mountains, rivers, tempests, forests, etc., we sometimes feel so insignificant that we are seized by a kind of dread that eclipses our minds. Coleridge reflects this awe by presenting us an exotic landscape and a sacred river that disappears under the ground. It runs “through caverns measureless to man/ down into a sunless sea”. It is very clear: Nature has a deep, dark, unknown place where all its energy flows. In the second stanza, this secret place reveals itself with a sudden strength: “as if this earth with fast thick pants were breathing. / A mighty fountain momently was forced”. The water breaks the rock and lets the river flow in open air till it reaches again the caverns. It sinks then into an ocean above which floats a pleasure dome “in tumult”. We humans cannot control it. We can just follow it to a pleasant, awesome sight that is not free of danger. The “voices prophesying war” and the “woman wailing for her demon-lover” make the menace more real.

Critics have different approaches on all these symbols. Shaffer sees in them a metaphor for the creation-destruction relation. The “voices prophesying war” are apocalyptic warnings. They are related to the danger of losing paradise and the bit of poison that is found in all of them. The sunny dome is for him a set of successive, probably concentric heavens, or also the “omphalos of the Universe” (4). For Kenneth Burke, the shadows and shapes, especially the “caves of ice”, are the very symbols of the sublime, as they are imprecise and dreadful (5). J. A. Howard thinks that a sexual metaphor may be the base of these lines: “Coleridge, like all the Romantics, believed that nature was a sexual goddess…For Coleridge, it’s all about nature, and nature is all about sex”. (6). Despite these differences, all viewpoints have something in common. The three of them underline the impossibility for us humans to dominate Nature. It controls us, and we often do not know how or what for. We are eventually in its hands, as the river is. Being conscious of these aspects drives us to admire Nature’s works in a state of shock. That is why Coleridge wants to express in these verses.

The very enclosure of Xanadu predisposes us to feel like this. Despite the fact that it has been created by humans, it still preserves the power to amaze us. Its dimensions, “twice five miles of fertile ground”, are the first admirable fact of Kubla Khan’s pleasure estate. The river and the forests, with their “incense-bearing” trees and the “sunny spots of greenery”, contribute to our astonishment as well. According to Stephen Bygrave, this is “an energetic and even potentially erotic landscape attended by distant threats and ready perhaps to imprison the unwary” (7). Joy and dread live together in this paradise, capturing our senses. Nature and human work, quietness and violence, pleasure and disturbance are mixed up in Xanadu. And so do in the poem. This fusion of opposites makes it hard for us to read the poem in a traditional way, to approach it with clear minds. This and other features make this poem a sublime composition in itself.

Another interesting feature of the poem is the figure of the poet. He is described as having “flashing eyes” and “floating hair”. We are warned (“Beware, beware!”) to “weave a circle round him thrice/ And close your eyes with holy dread”. This compares the poet with the prophets and apostles in the Bible (8). He does not speak his words, but the ones that God reveals him. That makes him a sacred person. The three circles help him to stay in touch with God, but also separate him from society. As Rimbaud wrote, “he becomes… the great banned one!- among men. For he arrives at the unknown!” (9). He is also out of control. For these reasons, people feel scared of him and leave them alone.

Genius and inspiration

There are three issues that I want to consider in this point: the fact that this poem was written under the influence of drugs, the way in which the creative process is reflected in this poem and how the genius is dealt with.

As Coleridge himself admits, he was under a drug-induced slumber while he was writing this poem. He tells us that he fell asleep when he was reading Purchas’s Pilgrimage. As a consequence, “all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort”. Many drugs alter perception and create unusual associations of ideas. It is easy to imagine Coleridge on an intense bliss, seeing Kubla Khan’s palace clearly as he depicts it in these stanzas. But the things that he reflects did not come just for taking a few drops of liquid opium. J. L. Lowes compiles all the literary sources for “Kubla Khan” in The Road to Xanadu, mentioning Purchas’ travel book and Bartram’s Travels among many others (10). According to him, Coleridge just let all the images that he had from his readings mix and flow with no boundaries (11). J. A. Howard goes even further:

“No matter what it is in life you’re creating; poetry, art or great big, magical, flying pleasure-domes… you still need to start with the same basic ingredients: passionate feelings an open and creative mind and a muse for inspiration… it’s all about sex, drugs and rock’n roll!”

Sex is related, hence, in the poem with the images of the bursting river and Nature’s pants, and rock and roll, with the damsel with a dulcimer. These three elements cause such an intense pleasure that set our imagination free. In fact, it has not been Coleridge the only artist who used these elements to get his mind free. Many artists of all ages did it. It is also well known that feeling sexual excitation and playing certain kinds of music set our perception wild if we are exposed to an intense stimulus for a long time. Nevertheless, a predisposition is also needed. A talent, a contact with the Universe is essential to create a great work. Sex, drugs and rock and roll are just a part of it.

“Kubla Khan” also illustrates the way in which an art work is created under inspiration. The first stanza corresponds with contact with an inspiring reality. The second one reflects the rapture of inspiration that is felt when creating. Finally, the third one represents a loss of thread and the desire to recover inspiration. As Coleridge explains, he was interrupted in the middle of writing. He tried to get back to the first theme and impulse, but it was impossible for him. Hence the radical change between the two first stanzas and the last one. Scott Foll asks “why would the author of a beautiful poem make a plea for, or lament the lack of, creative ability?” (12). I think that it is not lamenting for that, because Coleridge is obviously conscious of his creativity. He is praying the muse (the damsel with a dulcimer) for recovering the inspiration that he had when he was writing the first part of his poem.

The way in which inspiration works is depicted in the image of the river as well. Burke states that it represents the “stream of consciousness” (13), and Shaffer sees in it an “image of that symbolic process of human gnosis” (14). According to this, both inspiration and human mind work for Coleridge in the same way. It consists of a sudden burst of consciousness, a development of it and the final discovery of a sublime construct or reality. The river flows underground as well. This has to do with the inner development that we must carry out to achieve knowledge. This introspection is also needed when creating. Inspiration separates us from our environment. We just focus on our work under it. We turn into ourselves to feel better what has exploded in our minds, to see clearer the “sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice”. We can even affirm that creation and knowledge are eventually the same for Coleridge. Their way of developing and effects are so similar to his eyes that it makes a lot of sense to state it.

Muses and divine intervention are two basic elements of inspiration. They also play a main role in the definition of a genius. The last stanza of “Kubla Khan” makes it very clear. The Abyssinian maid is the poet’s muse. He wants to quit everything to sing her music (15):

“Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ‘twould win me…”

Being the muse a goddess, she can bring the poet back to the lost paradise. But he must use a magic ritual to get in touch with her. That would be another function of the three circles around the poet. As prophets, they are considered to get creative impulse through divine inspiration as well (16). Both prophets and poets get their messages in form of intense visions and dreams. These become the art work itself when transcribed, as in the poem’s first stanzas (17). Once this is done, the poet can take us from the everyday world to the ideal one, as Scott Foll says.



Conclusion


As we have seen, “Kubla Khan” is not as complicated as it seems at first. He only depicts a sublime process, that of inspiration, in a sublime way. That is the reason why we feel amazed when we read it. He is consistent all the time, despite being under a drug-induced slumber.

The obscure symbols that he uses and the several interpretations we can give them can seem difficult to tackle with. Nevertheless, Coleridge is simply inviting us to open up our minds and dive into a creative spirit. He gives us freedom to associate the poem’s contents with human experience. In the preface, the poet tries to apologize for having taken drugs by devaluating his work into a “psychological curiosity” (18). He is also annoyed for not having been able to finish it. Anyway, Coleridge does not have to finish his poem in order to give us something complete, as J. A. Howard admits.

Coleridge portrays how a creative mind works when inspired, explains us his ideas on Nature and praises freedom and imagination, among many other things. And he does so in just fifty-four verses. This is, indeed, one of the greatest poems ever written. And the best of it is that it keeps “measureless to man”, no matter how many analyses can be produced on it.
























Notes

1) Kenneth Burke, in ““Kubla Khan”: Proto-Surrealist Poem”. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Harold Bloom’s edition, p. 33.
2) E. S. Shaffer, in “Kubla Khan” and the Fall of Jerusalem, p. 5.
3) In www.sesk.org/Aesthetics/Literature/English/Romantics/Coleridge/ KublaKhan.htm
4) E. S. Shaffer, p. 103, 106,120 and 165.
5) Kenneth Burke, p. 45.
6) J. A. Howard, www.sesk.org/...
7) In Samuel Taylor Coleridge, p. 47.
8) E. S. Shaffer, p. 63.
9) Quoted by E. S. Shaffer, p. 91.
10) John Livingston Lowes, p. 326-29 and 336.
11) John Livingston Lowes, p. 327.
12) Scott Foll, in http://aliscot.com/ensenanza/4033/romantic/stc_kk.htm
13) Kenneth Burke, p. 42.
14) E. S. Shaffer, p. 187.
15) Ken Frieden, in “Conversational Pretense in “Kubla Khan””, p. 214.
16) E. S. Shaffer, p. 63 and 89-91.
17) Ken Frieden, p. 212.
18) E. S. Shaffer, p. 89 and 90.

Bibliography

PRIMARY
· Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan. A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment”. In Norton Anthology of English Literature, Fourth Edition, Volume 2. Norton & Co., New York and London, 1994.

SECONDARY
· Shaffer, E. S., “Kubla Khan” and the Fall of Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1975.
· Bygrave, Stephen, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Northcote House Publishers Ltd., Writers and their Work Collection, Plymouth, 1997.
· Livingston Lowes, John, The Road to Xanadu, Sentry Editions, Boston, 1964.
· Burke, Kenneth, “”Kubla Khan”, Proto-Surrealist Poem” and Frieden, Ken, “Conversational Pretense in “Kubla Khan”. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Harold Bloom’s edition, Chelsea House Publishers, New York, 1986.
· Howard, J. A., “Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n Roll!”, 1999. In www.sesk.org/Aesthetics/Literature/English/Romantics/Coleridge/
KublaKhan.htm. Access date: 23-10-03.
· Foll, Scott, “Kubla Khan”, 2000. In http://aliscot.com/ensenanza/4033/ romantic/stc_kk.htm. Access date: 23-10-03.