" Kubla Khan; or, Vision in the Dream: A Fragment " is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. According to Coleridge's introduction to " Kubla Khan, "the poem was made one night after he had opium-influenced dreams after reading a work depicting Xanadu, the Mongolian ruling summer palace and the Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan. Upon waking, he begins to write a line of poetry that comes to him from a dream until he is disturbed by "someone from Porlock". The poem can not be completed according to the original 200-300 line plan because the interruption caused him to forget his sentence. He left it unpublished and kept it for personal readings to his friends until 1816 when, at Lord Byron's whisper, it was published.
Some of Coleridge's contemporaries denounced the poem and questioned his story of its origin. Only a few years later the critics began to admire the poem openly. Most modern critics now see "Kubla Khan" as one of Coleridge's three great poems, along with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel . This poem is regarded as one of the most famous examples of Romanticism in English poetry, and is one of the most frequently sung poems in the English language. A copy of the manuscript is a permanent exhibition at the British Library in London.
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In September 1797, Coleridge lived in Nether Stowey in southwest England and spent most of his time walking through nearby Quantock Hills with fellow poet William Wordsworth and Wordsworth's sister Dorothy; (His route today is remembered as the "Coleridge Way".) Throughout the fall, he worked in many poems, including "The Brook" and Osorio's tragedies. Sometime between 9 and 14 October 1797, when Coleridge said he had completed the tragedy, he left Stowey for Lynton. Upon his return, he fell ill and rested at Ash Farm, located in Culbone Church and one of several places to seek refuge on his route.
Coleridge describes how he wrote poems in the preface to his collection of poems, Christabel, Kubla Khan, and Pains of Sleep, published in 1816:
In the summer of 1797, the Author, who was ill, had retired to the deserted farmhouse between Porlock and Linton, on the Exmoor border in Somerset and Devonshire. As a result of a bit of indisposition, anodyne has been prescribed, from the effect that he fell asleep in his chair as he read the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in 'Pilgrimes Buyer:' 'Here Khan Kubla ordered a palace to be built, and a magnificent garden therefor that: and thus ten miles from the fertile soil lined with walls. '
The Author continues for about three hours in a deep sleep, at least from external senses, during which time he has the most obvious belief that he can not compose less than two to three hundred lines; if it can be called a composition in which all images stand before him as objects, with parallel production of correspondent expressions, without any sensation or awareness of any effort. When he woke up, he appeared to himself to have a different memory from the whole, and picked up pens, ink, and paper, quickly and eagerly writing down the lines stored here. At this moment he was unfortunately summoned by someone in the business of Porlock, and held him over an hour, and upon his return to his room, discovered, no small surprise and cruelty, that although he still retained some faint and dim dim from general purpose vision, however, with the exception of about eight or ten lines and scattered images, all the rest have passed like a picture on the surface of the river where the stone has been cast, but, dear! without after the last restoration:
But from the memory that still holds in his mind, the Author has often aimed to solve for himself what was originally given to him. but tomorrow has not arrived yet. In contrast to this vision, I have annexed a very different character fragment, explaining with the same loyalty to the dreams of pain and illness.
Source - Purchase and Marco Polo
The book Coleridge read before he fell asleep was the Purchase, His Pilgrim, or the Relationship of the World and Religions Observed in All Times and Places Found, from Creation to Now, by British priest and geographer Samuel Purchas, published in 1613 The book contains a brief description of Xanadu, the summer capital of the Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan. The text about Xanadu at Purchas, His Pilgrimes , which Coleridge admits he does not remember exactly, is:
In Xandu, Cubasa Can build a magnificent Pallace, which includes sixteen miles of plaine land with a wall, where the fertile Meddowes, delightful Springs, delightful streames, and all sorts of hunting and game animals, and in the middle of a luxury home pleasure, which can be moved from one place to another.
This quote is based on the writings of Venetian explorers Marco Polo who are widely believed to have visited Xanadu in about 1275. In about 1298-1299, he dictated the description of Xanadu which includes these lines:
And when you drive three days from the last mentioned city (Cambalu, or modern Beijing), between north-east and north, you come to a town called Chandu, built by now ruling Khan. There in this place a very fine marble Castle, rooms all made of gold and painted with figures of humans and animals and birds, and with various trees and flowers, all executed with the exquisite art you deem them with joy and was astonished.
Around the palace, a wall was built, carrying a compass 16 miles away, and inside the Garden there were fountains and rivers and springs, and beautiful meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (not including the ferocious nature), the Emperor had bought and placed there to provide food for the gerfalcons and his hawk, which he kept there in the meow....
Marco Polo also mentions a large portable palace made of sugar cane and bamboo that can be squeezed and moved from one place to another. He describes it like this:
Moreover in place in the Garden where there is a charming wood he has another Palace built of sugar cane, which I have to give you a description. It is all over gold, and the most complicated finish inside. It lives in the gold and the lacking columns, each of which is the dragon of all gold, the tail attached to the column while the head supports the architrave, and the claw also spans right and left to support the architrave. The roof, like the others, is formed from a stick, covered with a varnish that is so strong and nice that no rain will rot. These sticks are 3 good palms in thickness, and from 10 to 15 steps long. They cut at each knot, and then the pieces were split so that they formed from every two hollow tiles, and with it the house was covered; just every tile of sugarcane to be nailed to prevent the wind lifting it. In short, the entire Palace was built from these sticks, which (I might mention) serve also for various other useful purposes. Castle Construction is so designed that it can be lowered and readied at high speed; and it can all be brought to pieces and thrown everywhere that the Emperor may command. When it was established, he prepared for an accident from the wind by more than 200 silk ropes.
God lives in the Garden, sometimes living in the Marble Palace and occasionally at the Cane Palace for three months of the year, until June, July, and August; prefer this place of residence because it is not hot; actually it is a really cool place. When the 28th day of August arrived, he took his departure, and the Cane Castle was crushed.
This is the "delightful luxury house" mentioned by Purchas, which Coleridge turned into a "magnificent dome of pleasure."
Crewe Manuscript
In 1934, a copy of a poem written by Coleridge himself some time before its publication in 1816 was found in a private library. The so-called Crewe Manuscript was sent by Coleridge to Ny. Southey, who then gives it or sells it to a private signature collector. It was auctioned off in 1859 and bought by another signature collector at the price of a pound of fifteen pence. It was forwarded to the Marquess of Crewe, who donated it in 1962 to the British Museum, where it is now on display.
A note written on the back of the Crewe script by Coleridge gives a shorter and slightly different description of how the poem was written than the version published in 1816. Coleridge links the origin of the poem with one of his tenure at Ash Farm, perhaps one which occurred in October 1797: "These fragments are more numerous, irreversible, arranged, in a kind of daydream brought by two poppy points taken to examine dysentery, in an Agricultural House between Porlock & Linton, a quarter of a mile from Culbone Church, in the fall of this year, 1797 ".
The Crewe Manuscript has several minor changes and three important differences from the final version published in 1816. For example, Coleridge changed the size and description of the park:
compared with:
Coleridge also changed his description of the abyss:
From this Gorge out with a grumpy Turmoil that creates (Crewe Manuscript)
changed into:
And from this abyss, with unceasing boiling (1816 published texts)
The most significant changes appear on the line:
Which, in the published version, becomes:
This is very important, because in Crewe Manuscript he sings on Mount Amara, mentioned at Paradise Lost by John Milton:
While in the last published version, Mount Abora is pure fantasy, was chosen only for the beauty of his voice.
Publications
Unlike Coleridge's usual approach to his poems, he did not mention the poem in the letters to his friends. The first written record of the poem is in Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, October 1798. It is possible that the poem was read to his friends during this time and kept for personal use rather than publication. However, the exact date of the poem is uncertain because Coleridge usually dates his poems but does not date Kubla Khan. Coleridge wrote to John Thelwall, October 14, 1797, to describe his feelings related to what is expressed in poetry:
I should hope, like Vishna India, to float along the boundless ocean of the Lotos, & amp; wake up once in a million years for a few minutes - just to know I'm going to sleep another million years... I can sometimes feel strongly about beauty, you describe, in themselves, & amp; for themselves - but more often everything comes up a bit - all the knowledge, that can be gained, the child's game - the universe itself - what but the big pile of little things ?... My mind feels as if it is sick to see & amp; know something great - something one & amp; inseparable - and it is only in this faith that rocks or waterfalls, mountains or caves give me a sense of grandeur or majesty!
The thoughts expressed in Coleridge's letter dated "Kubla Khan" until October 1797, but two alternatives have been postulated by Coleridge's biographer: May 1798 and October 1799. This was the second time he was in the area, and, in 1799, Coleridge was able to read Robert Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer , a work that also attracted the work of Purchas. It is possible that he only edited poetry during that time period, and there is little evidence to suggest that Coleridge lied about the experience induced by opium at Ash Farm.
The work was set aside until 1815 when Coleridge compiled his poetry texts for a collection titled Sibylline Leaves. The poem remained buried in obscurity until the April 10, 1816 meeting between Coleridge and Lord Byron, who persuaded Coleridge to publish Christabel and Kubla Khan as fragments. Leigh Hunt, poet and essayist, watched the show and wrote, "He read 'Kubla Khan' one morning to Lord Byron, at the Young Master's house in Piccadilly, when I happened to be in another room.I remember others coming from him, very impressed with his poetry, and saying how wonderfully he speaks.This is the impression of everyone who hears it. "Byron arranged for John Murray to publish poems with Christabel and The Pains of Sleep along with the introduction to works. A contract was made on April 12, 1816 for £ 80. Charles Lamb, the poet and a friend of Coleridge, watched Coleridge's work to publish poetry and write to Wordsworth: "Coleridge was printing Xtabel by Lord Byron's recommendation to Murray, with what he called Kubla Khan's vision - which says the repeated vision is so fascinating that it shining & bringing paradise & Elysian bowers to my living room when he sings or says it ". Coleridge lives in London to work on the poem and also tries to break his opium addiction. However, not everyone is happy with the idea of ​​published poetry, as Coleridge's wife, who is not with her, writes to Thomas Poole, "Oh! When will he give his friends something other than pain? He has been so unwise as to publish fragments- its fragment of 'Christabel' & 'Kubla-Khan'... we are all annoyed when reading advertisements about these things. "
The poetry collection was published May 25, 1816, and Coleridge incorporated "A Fragment" as a subtitle to the 54 line version of the poem to defend himself from criticism of the incomplete nature of the poem. The original version published from the work was separated into 2 stanzas, with the first suffix in line 30. Printed with "Kubla Khan" is the preface that claims the opium-induced dream provided by Coleridge's line. The poem was printed four times in Coleridge's life, with the last print in his
Maps Kubla Khan
Style
The poem differs in style and form from other poems composed by Coleridge. Though incomplete and has a subtitle "fragment", the language is very stylish with a strong emphasis on sound devices that change between the original two poems. The first verse of the poem depicts the dome of Khan's fun built beside the sacred river which is fanned by a powerful fountain. The poet's second poem is the narrator's response to the strength and effect of the Abyssinian auxiliary song, which captivates him but makes him unable to act on his inspiration unless he can hear it again. Together, they form a comparison of creative forces that do not work with nature and creative forces that are harmonious with nature.
The poem, according to Coleridge's report, is part of what it should be, as much as he can record from memory: 54 lines. Initially, his dream included between 200 and 300 lines, but he was only able to write the first 30 before he was disturbed. The second verse does not have to be part of the original dream and refers to the dream in the past tense. The poetry rhythm, like the theme and the image, is different from the other poems Coleridge has written so far, and is structured in a structure similar to the scent of the 18th century. The poem relies on many sound-based techniques, including cognate and chiasmus variations. In particular, the poem emphasizes the use of "ÃÆ'Â|" sound and similar modifications to a standard "a" sound to make Asian-sounding poetry. The rhyme scheme found in the first seven lines is repeated in the first seven lines of the second stanza. There are many uses of assonance, the reuse of vowel sounds, and dependence on alliteration, the first word repetition of a word, in the poem including the first line: "In Xanadu do Kubla Khan". The suppressed sounds, "Xan", "du", "Ku", "Khan", contain an asonance in the use of auua sound, have two syllables with "Xan" and "Khan", and use alliteration under the name "Kubla Khan" and reuse "d" is heard in "Xanadu" and "do". To draw a line together, the "i" sound of "In" is repeated in "what". The line then does not contain the same amount of symmetry but depends on assonance and rhyme. The only word that has no connection to other words is "domes" except in the use of "d" sound. Although the lines are interconnected, the rhyme scheme and line length are irregular.
The first line of the poem follows the iambic tetrameter with an early stanza that relies on heavy pressure. The second stanza incorporates a lighter pressure to increase the speed of the meter to separate it from a rhythm like a hammer from the previous line. There is also a strong pause after line 36 in the poem that provides the second verse, and there is a transition in the narrative of the third person narration of Kubla Khan into a poet who discusses his role as a poet. Without the Preface, the two stanzas form two different poems that have a relationship with each other but do not have unity. This is not to say they will be two different poems, because the technique of having separate parts responding to the other is used in the odal song genre, used in poetry of other Romantic poets including John Keats or Percy Bysshe Shelley. However, the songs used by others have a stronger unity among the parts, and Coleridge believes in writing organically united poetry. It is possible that Coleridge was unhappy with the lack of unity in poetry and added a note about the structure to the Introduction to explain his thinking. In terms of genre, poetry is a dream poem and related to a work depicting a common vision for the Romantic poet. "Kubla Khan" is also associated with the fragmentary poetry genre, with internal images reinforcing the idea of ​​fragmentation found in the form of poetry. The self-proclaimed poem as a fragment combined with Coleridge's warning about the poem in the introduction turned out to be "Kubla Khan" to be "anti-poetry", a work that lacks structure, order, and makes the reader confused rather than enlightened. However, the poem has little to do with the other fragmentary poems Coleridge wrote.
Theories about introduction and writing
The introduction of "Kubla Khan" begins by explaining that it is printed "at the request of a great and appropriate celebrity poet, and as far as the author's own opinion is concerned, rather as a psychological curiosity, rather than on any grounds should be poetic the benefit". The introduction then gives the origin of the poem and why it is only a smaller part of the larger work that is intended. After reading from the book Purchas, "The Writer continues for about three hours in a deep sleep, at least from the external senses, during which time he has the clearest belief that he can not compose less than two or three hundred lines... Waking up, he seemed to himself to have a different memory from the whole, and picked up his pen, ink, and paper, quickly and eagerly writing down the lines stored here. "Coleridge's self-image is a dreamer who reads the work of knowledge and not as a opium addicts. In contrast, the opium effect, as described, is meant to show that it is unfamiliar with its effect.
There are some issues with the Coleridge account, especially claims to have a copy of Purchases with them. It was a rare book, impossible to be in a "lonely farmhouse", nor had anyone taken it on a journey; heavy folio and nearly 1000 pages. It is possible that the words of Purchas are only remembered by Coleridge and that his portrayal to immediately read the work before falling asleep is to assert that the subject came to him by accident.
This section continues with a notorious account of the annoyance: "At this time he was unfortunately summoned by someone who was in business from Porlock, and held by him in an hour, and upon returning to his room, found, no surprise and regret, store some faint and dim memories of the general purpose of the vision, however, with the exception of about eight or ten lines and scattered images, all the rest have passed like the picture on the stream surface where the stone has been thrown, but, unfortunately! last! "The real people from Porlock mentioned many people, including Wordsworth, Joseph Cottle, John Thelwall, Coleridge's wife, or just a literary tool. As a symbol in the foreword, the person represents real-world obligations crashing into the creative world or other factors that keep Coleridge from completing his poetry. The claim to produce poetry after dreaming of it became popular after "Kubla Khan" was published. The man from Porlock later became the word to describe the disconnected genius, and literary critic Walter Jackson Bate recalled that while John Livingston Lowes taught the poem he told his disciples "If anyone in literary history has to be hanged, hauled and cut- cut, that's the person doing business from Porlock. "Literary critic DF Rauber claims that the man" needs to create the illusion of short pieces rather than stop ". This will allow Coleridge to deliberately write the poem as a fragment.
The introduction to the poem shows that the poem should not be printed, that it is the work of fragments that he can not complete, and that the work itself is given to him through unconscious inspiration. When the Preface was dropped, the poem seemed to compare the act of poetry with the power of Kubla Khan rather than the loss of inspiration that caused the work to have a more complex portrayal of poetic power. Together, the Introduction can connect with the first half of the poem to claim that the poem is derived from the view of a dreaming narrator, or to connect with the second half of the poem to show how a reader interprets the line by connecting himself with the person in a negative way. Introduction and poetry differ on their location, as the Preface discusses Coleridge's England while the poem discusses the ancient Chinese, but both discuss the role of poetry and its abilities. The Poet of the Preface is a dreamer who has to write poet and poet is an individual vocal, but both are poets who are losing inspiration. Only poet poets feel that they can restore the vision, and the Preface, like Coleridge's poem quoted in it, The Picture , states that vision can not be recovered.
Poems
The poem begins with a fantastic description of the capital of Kublai Khan, Xanadu, which Coleridge places near the Alph river, which passes through the caves before reaching the dark or dead sea. Although the soil is one of man's "delights", there is a natural, "sacred" river through it. The lines describing the river have a very different rhythm from the rest of this passage:
The land was built as a heavenly garden, but like Eden after the fall of Man, Xanadu was isolated by a wall. The limited properties of the wall constructed from Xanadu are contrasted with the infinite nature of the natural caves through which the river passes.
There are several small variations in different versions of this text. The version published in 1816 reads:
And there a bright garden with grassy meadows,
While a hand-written holograph copy by Coleridge himself (the Crewe script, shown on the right) says:
And here is a bright garden with grassy meadows,
This poem expands on gothic hints from the first stanza when the narrator explores the dark ravine in the middle of Xanadu's garden, and describes the surrounding area as "savage" and "holy". Yarlott interprets this gulf as a symbol of a poet who fights against decadence that ignores nature. It can also represent the dark side of the soul, the inhumane effect of power and power.
From the dark ravine, the fountain erupts violently, then forms the twisting river Alph, which flows into the sea depicted in the first stanza. Fountains are often a symbol of early life, and in this case may represent strong creativity. Since this fountain ends in death, it may also represent only the span of human life, from violent birth to drowning end.
Kubla Khan hears the voice of the dead, and refers to the vague "war" that seems not referenced elsewhere in the poem. Yarlott argues that war represents punishment for seeking pleasure, or just a present confrontation with the past:
Although the Xanadu exterior is presented in dark images, and in the context of the Dead Sea, we are reminded of the "magic" and "pleasure" of Kubla Khan's creation. Site vision, including domes, caves, and fountains, is similar to apocalyptic vision. Together, natural and man-made structures form natural wonders because they represent the opposite blend together, the essence of creativity:
The narrator becomes prophetic, referring to the vision of an unknown "Abyssinian servant" singing "Mount Abora". Harold Bloom points out that this passage reveals the narrator's desire to rival Khan's ability to be creative with his own. The woman may also refer to Mnemosyne, the Greek personification of memory and the mother of contemplation, referring directly to the struggle Coleridge claimed to compose this poem from the memory of dreams.
The next section refers to an unnamed witness who may also hear this, and thus shares in the narrator's vision of replicated and refined Xanadu. Harold Bloom points out that the power of the poetic imagination, stronger than nature or art, fills the narrator and gives him the ability to share this vision with others through his poetry. The narrator will thus be elevated to an astonishing, almost mystical, status as one who has experienced Edenic heaven only available to those who possess these same mastered creative powers:
Theories about meaning
One theory says that "Kubla Khan" is about poetry and the two parts discuss two types of poetry. The power of imagination is an important component of this theme. This poem celebrates creativity and how poets are able to connect to the universe through inspiration. As a poet, Coleridge put himself in an uncertain position as master of his creative power or his slave. The city of the dome represents the imagination and the second stanza represents the relationship between a poet and the rest of society. The poet is separated from the rest of humanity after he is exposed to the power of creating and being able to witness the vision of truth. This separation causes an aggressive relationship between the poet and the audience as the poet seeks to control his audience through compelling techniques. The poem's emphasis on the imagination as the subject of poetry, on contrast in the heavenly setting, and his discussion of the role of the poet as either blessed or condemned by the imagination, has influenced many works, including Alfred Tennyson's "Art Palace" and Poetry by William Butler Yeats Byzantium. There is also a strong connection between the idea of ​​retreating into the imagination found in Keats's Lamia and in Tennyson's "Palace of Art". The Preface, when added to the poem, connects the idea of ​​heaven as an imagination with Porlock land, and that the imagination, though infinite, will be disturbed by "the person doing business". The introduction then allows Coleridge to leave poetry as a fragment, symbolizing the inability of the imagination to give a complete picture or truly reflect reality. The poem is not about the act of creation, but a disparate view that reveals how it works: how the poet creates the language and how it deals with itself.
Through the use of imagination, this poem is able to discuss the issues surrounding tyranny, war, and contrast in heaven. Part of the motive of war can be a metaphor for the poet in a competitive struggle with the reader to push his own vision and ideas towards his audience. As part of the idea of ​​imagination in poetry is the creative process by describing the world that is the imagination and the other is the understanding. The poet, in Coleridge's system, is able to move from the realm of understanding, in which man normally resides, and into the world of imagination through poetry. When the narrator describes "the voice of an ancestor signifying war," the idea is part of the world of understanding, or the real world. Overall, the poem is connected to Coleridge's belief in a secondary Imagination that can lead poets into the world of imagination, and that poem is the description of the world and a description of how poets enter the world. Imagination, as it appears in many of Coleridge and Wordsworth's works, including "Kubla Khan", is discussed through water metaphors, and the use of the river in "Kubla Khan" is connected with the use of flow in Wordsworth The Prelude . The image of water is also related to the divine and the natural, and the poet is able to utilize the tap into nature by means of Kubla Khan not being able to harness its power.
Towards the end of 1797, Coleridge was fascinated by the idea of ​​the river and it was used in several poems including "Kubla Khan" and "The Brook". In his book Biographia Literaria (1817), he explains, "I am looking for a subject, which must provide the same space and freedom for the fiery description, incident, and reflection of men, nature, and society, but the supply in itself the natural relationship with parts and unity with the whole, the subject that I feel myself has found in the river, traced from its source in the hills between the yellow-red lichen and the cone-shaped glass shafts, the first pause or pause, where the droplets become audible, and start forming channels ". It is possible that the image of Biographia Literaria follows the recovery of the manuscript "Kubla Khan" during the composition of the book. The image of the water permeated through many of his poems, and the beach he witnessed on his way to Linton appeared in Osorio . In addition, many images are connected to the widespread use of Ash Farm and Quantocks in Coleridge's poetry, and the mystical arrangements of both Osorio and Kubla Khan are based on an idealized version of the region.. "Kubla Khan" was composed in the same year as The Raider of the Citrus Tree , and the two poems contained images used on October 14, 1797 to Thelwall. However, his style is very different because it is very structured and rhythmic while others try to imitate conversation conversations. What they have in common is that they use scenery based on the same location, including repeated use of valleys, rocks, ferns, and waterfalls found in the Somerset region. The Preface uses a water parable to explain what happens when the vision disappears by quoting a passage from the poem The Picture . When considering all the The Pictures and not just quotes, Coleridge describes how inspiration is similar to a stream and if an object is thrown into it, the sight will be disturbed.
Tatars and Paradise
The Tatars ruled by Kubla Khan are seen in the Coleridge tradition of working as brutal savages and used that way when Coleridge compares the others with Tatars. They are seen as sun worshipers, but not civilized and connected both to the lineage of either Cain or Ham. However, Coleridge describes Khan in the light of peace and as a genius. He tried to show his strength but did it by building his own version. Descriptions and traditions give contrast between daemonic and genius in poetry, and Khan is a ruler who can not create Eden. There is also a comparison between Khan and Catherine the Great or Napoleon with their buildings and destroyed nations. Although imagery can be dark, there is little moral concern because ideas are mixed with creative energy. In the second stanza, Khan is able to establish some order in nature, but he can not stop the forces of nature that continue to try to destroy what he makes. Nature, in that poem is not a power of redemption but one of destruction, and the reference of heaven reinforces what Khan can not accomplish.
Although the Tatars are a barbarian from China, they are connected with ideas in Jewish Christian tradition, including the ideas of Sin of Origin and Eden. The story of Cublai Can in Purchas's work, discussed in Coleridge's Introduction, connects the idea of ​​heaven with luxury and sensual pleasures. The place is portrayed in negative terms and seen as an inferior representation of heaven, and Coleridge's ethical system does not connect pleasure with joy or the divine. As for the specific aspect of the scene, the river and cave drawings are used to illustrate how creativity operates in post-Eden reality. The river, Alph, replaces the one from Eden that gives eternity and disappears into the sunless sea that has no life. This picture further connects to the biblical, post-Edenic stories in the mythological narratives that link the children of Ham violence to Tatars, and that Tartarus, originally from a location, becomes a synonym for hell. Coleridge believes that the Tatars are rude, and that their culture is opposed to civilized Chinese. The Tatars are also different from the Prester John concept, which is probably Prester Chan and, in Ludolphus's story, is being chased by Asia by Tatars and, in John Herbert's Travels, is Abyssinian.
This land is similar to the false paradise of Mount Amara in Paradise Lost, especially Abyssinian servant song about Abora Mountain that is capable of charming poets. In the script manuscript, the location is named Amora and Amara, and the location of both is the same. There are more connections to Paradise Lost, including how Milton linked the Tatars to the Post-Edenic world in Adam's vision of the Tartar kingdom. In a post-Milton account, the kingdom was associated with sun worship, and his name was seen to be the one that revealed Khan as a pastor. This is reinforced by the Alph river connection with the Alpheus, a river in Greece connected to the sun worship. As a follower of the sun, Tatar is connected with a tradition that describes Cain as the founder of a sun-worshiping city and that people in Asia will build a garden in memory of the lost Eden.
In the tradition Coleridge relies on, the Tatars worship the sun for reminding them of heaven, and they build the garden because they want to create a paradise. Kubla Khan is the line of Cain and falls, but he wants to overcome that situation and rediscover heaven by creating a covered garden. The dome, in Thomas Maurice's description, in Hindustan History of tradition, is related to the worship of nature because it reflects the form of the universe. Coleridge, when composing poetry, believed in the connection between nature and the divine but believed that the only dome that should serve as the top of the temple was the sky. He thinks that the dome is an attempt to hide from the ideal and escape into a personal creation, and the dome of Kubla Khan is a flaw that keeps him from actually connected to nature. Maurice's
The narrator introduces the character he once dreamed of, an Abyssinian servant singing another song. He is a figure of imaginary power in poetry that can inspire in the narrator his own ability to make poetry. When he sings, he is able to inspire and amaze the poet by describing a false paradise. The woman herself is similar to the way Coleridge describes Lewti in another poem he wrote at the same time, Lewti . The relationship between Lewti and the Abyssinian minister makes it possible that the waitress was intended as a veiled version of Mary Evans, who appeared as a love interest since Coleridge's 1794 poem The Sigh. Evans, in poetry, appears as an object of sexual desire and a source of inspiration. He also resembles the later subject of Coleridge's many poems, Asra, based on Sara Hutchinson, whom Coleridge desired but not his wife and to experience the dream of an induced opium to be with him.
In addition to the real life partners of the Abyssinian waitress, Milton Paradise Lost described the Abyssinian Kings to keep their children guarded at Mount Amara and false paradise, resounding in "Kubla Khan".
Mount Abora
In the Crewe script, an unpublished version of poetry, Abyssinian servants singing on Mount Amara, instead of Abora. Mount Amara is a real mountain, today called Amba Geshen, located in the Amhara Region of modern Ethiopia, formerly known as the Abyssinian Empire. It is a natural fortress, and is the treasury of royalty and royal prisons. The sons of the Abyssinian emperors, except his successors, were detained there, to prevent them from taking a coup against their father, until the death of the Emperor.
Mount Amara was visited between 1515 and 1521 by the Portuguese priest, explorer and diplomat Francisco Alvares (1465-1541), who was on a mission to meet the Christian king of Ethiopia. His description of Mount Amara was published in 1540, and appeared in
Alvares menulis:
The custodian is that all the sons of the Kings, except the Heires, as they were brought up, they send them suddenly to a mighty Rock, which stands in the province of Amara, and there they pass through their lives, and never got out of there, except the King who started their life back without Heires.
Mount Amara also appeared on Milton Paradise Lost:
Amara Mountain is in the same area as Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile. The Ethiopian tradition says the Blue Nile is the Gihon River of the Bible, one of the four rivers flowing out of the Garden of Eden in Genesis, saying that Gihon flows through the Kingdom of Kush, the name Bibel for Ethiopia and Sudan. The reality is that the Blue Nile is far from the other three rivers mentioned in Genesis 2: 10-14, but this belief led to a connection in the 18th and 19th century English literature between Mount Amara and Firdaus.
Source
There are many sources associated with "Kubla Khan" for styles, imagery, and topics. As mentioned above, the description of the size and landscape of Xanadu and the Pleasure Dome is taken directly from Purchas, which takes it from the description of Marco Polo, who has visited Xanadu. Coleridge may also be influenced by around Culbone Combe and its hills, gulleys, and other features including the "mystical" and "sacred" locations in the region. He acknowledged that he was directly influenced by Buyers' Pilgrimes, but there were additional strong literary connections to other works, including John Milton Paradise Lost, Samuel Johnson Rasselas , Chatterton Eclogues Africa , William Bartram Journey through North and South Carolina , Thomas Burnet Holy Earth Theory , Mary Wollstonecraft Short in Sweden, Plato Phaedrus and Ion , Maurice's Hindostan History , and Heliodorus Aethiopian History . The poem also contains an allusion to the Book of Revelation in the description of the New Jerusalem and to the heaven of William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream . As for certain places, the main character is Kublai Khan king Tartar of China, the river is Alpheus in Greece and is similar to the Nile, and Abyssinian women sing Mount Amara, and the caves are like in Kashmir. Also, the name "Alph" can connect to the idea of ​​being an alpha or genuine place. The source used for "Kubla Khan" is also used in Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner .
Most of the poetry may have been influenced by Coleridge's opponent dreams or, when his friend and colleague Robert Southey joked, "Coleridge had dreamed he had written a poem in a dream". If Coleridge's dreams do generate ideas in poetry, they are related to those experienced by opium eaters and contemporary writers, Thomas de Quincey and Charles Pierre Baudelaire. It is possible that the dream affected Coleridge's later mood and caused him depression, affecting ideas in his writings that followed the night dream. Of these ideas, Coleridge emphasized the vastness of the universe and his feelings were overwhelmed by how little the universe was to him. Also, Charles Lamb gave Coleridge on April 15, 1797 with a copy of "A Vision of Repentance", a poem discussing dreams that resemble those of Kubla Khan. The poem could give Coleridge the idea of ​​a dream poem discussing fountains, sacredness, and even a woman singing a sad song. The use of real names and the use of unorganized actions by poetry can also be associated with opium-induced state of mind. In terms of spelling, Coleridge's print version differs from the Purchas spelling, which refers to the Tartar ruler as "Cublai Can", and from the spelling used by Milton, "Cathaian Can". The original manuscript (as reproduced above) spelled the name "Cubla Khan" and the place "Xannadu".
The Abyssinian aides come from many characters in Coleridge's life, including the woman Coleridge admired in several ways: Charlotte Brent, Catherine Clarkson, Mary Morgan, and Dorothy Wordsworth. Although Asra/Hutchinson is similar to the way Coleridge talks about Abyssinian servants, Hutchinson is someone he met after writing "Kubla Khan". The person most suited to the figure is Evans, the subject of Coleridge's Lewti . The poetry claim that the narrator will be inspired to act if the song of the waiter can be heard is a belief that Coleridge holds about Evans after he becomes impossible for him.
Critical response
According to some critics, the stanzas of the two poems, which form conclusions, are composed later on and may be cut off from the original dream.
Before the poem was published, it was highly favored by Byron, who encouraged Coleridge to publish poetry, and it was admired by many including Walter Scott. However, the direct response to the 1816 collection was to ignore Christabel and "Kubla Khan" or simply to attack "Kubla Khan". The work went through several editions, but the poem, as well as his works published in 1816 and 1817, had a bad sale as a result of a hostile critic who acted thus far to attack Coleridge's integrity. Many of the attacks began as a new generation of critical magazines, including Edinburgh Edinburgh Blackwood Edinburgh, Edinburgh and Quarterly Review, founded in the early 19th century. The critics are more provocative than the previous generation, and much of the bad reception is based on Coleridge's publication time and his own political views, much to the contrast with critics' views, rather than actual content. Another reason for the negative reviews is a piece of puff written by Byron about the publication Christabel . Not all negative comments are public, such as Charles Lamb, a friend of Coleridge, expressed his fear of a negative response when he wrote: "Coleridge repeats so dazzlingly that it shines and brings heaven and elysian bowers into my living room when he sings or says it, but there's an observation: 'never tell your dreams,' and I almost fear that 'Kubla Khan' is an owl that will not hold up for the day, I'm afraid that it must be found by typographic lanterns and clear cuts for letters, no more better than nonsense or nonsense. "
The first review of negative reviews is written by William Hazlitt, literary critic and Romantic writer. He reviewed the collection of poems for June 2, 1816 Examiner, and, in his analysis, he attacked the fragmental nature of the work and argued, "Mr. Coleridge's fault is, that he does not conclude... from overcapacity, he do little or nothing "and that the poem reveals that" Mr. Coleridge can write better verse nonsense than anyone in the English language. "In conclusion, Hazlitt admits," We can repeat the sentences this is on ourselves, but not infrequently because it does not know its meaning. " After Josiah Conder dismissed his poem: "Regarding 'Kubla Khan' and 'Pains of Sleep', in June 1816, we can only regret their publication, for providing evidence that the author exaggerates the importance of the name The first, which is expressed as a psychological curiosity, has been composed during sleep, there seems to be nothing in the quality of the lines to make this situation extraordinary. "He then proceeded to focus on the way in which the poem was arranged, 'We can tell Mr. Coleridge about a friend of our pastor, who actually wrote two sermons on a passage in the Apocalypse, from his spontaneous rehearsal training in sleep. For people who are in the habit of poetry composition, a similar phenomenon will not be an unusual occurrence, rather than a soulless dialogue in prose that takes place in the dreams of discovery people boring rather than our poet, and who does not carelessly leave a very clear impression. "
Coleridge's statements about the origin of the poetry are reconsidered by various critics with an emphasis on how origins affect the usefulness of the poem. In an anonymous commentary for July 1816 Panoramic Literature , the reviewer claimed, "'Kubla Khan' are only a few stanzas that owe their origin to a state that is not uncommon for people of poetic imagination.. But keep in mind, that in the sleep of judgment is the first thought faculty that stops acting, therefore, the opinion of the sleeper respecting his appearance is unbelievable even in his waking moments. "The review praised the work," Still, if two hundred lines belong to Mr. Coleridge is all the same as he preserves, we are ready to admit that he has reason to grieve for their loss. " Another anonymous review of July 1816, for Anti-Jacobin , discusses the origins of poetry but refuses poetry with lukewarm compliments: "It has no wildness or defects, from 'Christabel'; they are not entirely embarrassed by their striking beauty. "Another anonymous July 1816 review, in the Augustan Review, claims that the description of the poem" has a lot of Oriental riches and harmony "but also says, as response to the preface, "It seems nothing great, a danger in dreaming when someone is asleep, but a writer should not dream when he wakes up, and writes as well."
The following reviews months after publication contained limited positive judgment of the poem. The review of William Roberts, for August 1816 English Reviews , is more positive than the previous analysis but without detail about the work: "passing through two other poems tied together with 'Christabel', called 'Fragment of Kubla Khan' and 'The Pains of Sleep' in which, however, there are some funny thoughts and fantastic imagery, which we will gladly extract if our room will allow it. "The next review comes in January 1817 Monthly Reviews , with an anonymous reviewer of the reviewer: "Letting every possible accuracy of Mr. Coleridge's statement, we will ask whether this remarkable fragment is not a quick and instant composition effect after he wakes up, rather than memory immediately recording what he dreams while asleep? can distinguish between such compositions and memories? Impressed by his thoughts with his fascinating dreams, and habituated because he... for a momentary production of i verse, will he dare to declare that he does not write , and that he remember , the line in front of us? "The review then concludes," His psychological curiosity, as he mentioned, does not depend on the formation of the previous facts we have mentioned: but the poem itself is under criticism. We will ignore it with some flashy words. from Sir Kenelm Digby, in his observation of Browne religio Medici: 'I have many impasse to believe what he says with confidence; that he is more concerned with Morpheus for an educated and rational and pleasant dream, than to Mercury for smart and witty conceptions'. " Analysis later
The positive analysis of the poem came from Leigh Hunt, on October 21, 1821 when Hunt wrote an article about Coleridge as part of his "Sketches of the Poets of Life" series. When it comes to "Kubla Khan", he points out: "instead of being content to write subtly under the influence of laudanum, recommending 'Kubla-Khan' to his readers, not as poetry, but as 'psychological curiosity'.. Every lover of books , educated or not, who knows what makes kuarto open to the bread in his tea... must have Mr. Coleridge's poem, if only for 'Christabel', 'Kubla Khan', and 'Ancient Mariner'. "When talking about the poem himself, Hunt claimed "is the voice and vision, ringing immortal in our mouths, dreams suitable for Cambuscan and all poets, dance pictures like Giotto or Cimabue, revived and back. - inspired, will be made for the Stories of Old Tartarie, a piece of the world invisible that is made visible by the sun in the middle of the night and glide in front of our eyes... Only it is thought that to be able to present such images to mind, is to realize the world they are bi please. We can repeat the verses such as the following under the swamp green, summer morning whole ". The work was run without the large notice until John Bowring reviewing the work of poetry Coleridge for January 1830 Westminster Review . When discussing the work along with the origin of the poem, Bowring states, "This story is remarkable, but 'Kubla Khan' is much more valuable in other accounts, that is, from its melodious version. This is perfect music. The effect can hardly be more satisfying to the ear, every syllable is chosen just for the sake of his voice. But there is all the close correspondence between the meter, the parade parade, and the image depicted by those words. "When it concludes about the job, he stated," The elements of this melody are common and well known of the English language, our writers are always very precise in their management, but nothing where he had to mix in a combination that is so perfect as in this. "emphasis else on the musicality of poetry came in August 1834, with an analysis Henry Nelson Coleridge in Quarterly Review :" in some of the smaller pieces, as the conclusion of 'Kubla Khan', for example, not only its own musical line, but all parts are heard at once as a blast or a harp crash in the fall air. The poems appear to be rotated to the ear on some invisible instrument. And the way the poet in reading the verse is similar. "
The Victorian critics praised the poem and some aspects that were examined from the background of the poem. John Sheppard, in his analysis of the dream titled On Dreams (1847), deplores Coleridge's use of drugs as an obstacle in his poetry, but argues: "It is possible, because he wrote about taking 'anodyne,' that ' in dreams' arises under some of the joys of the same narcotics, but this does not destroy, even in special cases, evidence for the extraordinary inventive action of the mind in sleep, because, whatever the cause of interest, the reality remains the same. T. Hall Caine, in 1883 surveyed the original critical responses to Christabel and Kubla Khan, praised the poem and declared: "It must surely be left that bad criticism of 'Christabel' and 'Kubla Khan' which quoted here is beyond all tolerant treatment, whether raillery or banter.It is difficult to associate such a false verdict with pure and absolute ignorance.Even when we make it all because of the allowance for the prejudices of criticism that may only enthusiasm go to 'propriety and decency Poe, 'we can hardly believe that the most exquisite art that is of the utmost value in our possessions can face so many nagging abuses without the criminal intervention of personal ferocity. "In a review of HD Traill's analysis of Coleridge in" English Men of Letters, an anonymous reviewer wrote in 1885 Westminster Review : "About 'Kubla Khan,' Mr. Traill writes: 'On wild dreams 'Kubla Khan,' it's hardly more than a psychological curiosity, and only that may be due to its choppy shape. 'Lovers of poetry think otherwise, and listen to these beautiful sentences as Poesy's own voice. "
Criticism in the late nineteenth century favored the poem and placed it as one of Coleridge's best works. When discussing Christabel , Rime of the Ancient Mariner and "Kubla Khan", an anonymous reviewers in October 1893 The Church Quarterly Review claimed, "In these poems reach Coleridge's mastery of language and rhythms that are not clearly visible in him. "In 1895, Andrew Lang reviewed the Letters of Coleridge in addition to Coleridge's" Kubla Khan ", Christabel and Rime of the Ancient Mariner , says: "all these poems are 'magical;' all seem to have been 'given' by Coleridge's 'unconscious' dream.The earliest pieces do not promise these wonders.They come from what is oldest in Coleridge's nature, lifeless and irresistible, magical and rare intuition, living in beyond the general sights of common things, sweet beyond the sound of things being heard. "GE Woodberry, in 1897, said that Christabel , Rime of the Ancient Mariner , and "Kubla Khan" are the extraordinary creations of their genius, in which there will be a newly created world of nature, and dramatic methods and interests, sufficient for the purpose of analysis if there is no other place in Coleridge's work except in this and less in some other instances, do these high characteristics. "In speaking of three poems, he states that they" possess in addition to the richness of beauty in detail, from good diction, liquid melody, sentiment, thought, and image, lik poetry of the highest order, and its too obvious to ask for any comment. 'Kubla Khan' is a poem of the same kind, in which a mystical effect is given almost entirely by the landscape. "
Modern critics
The 1920s contains an analysis of poetry that emphasizes the strength of the poem. At The Way to Xanadu (1927), a long study of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and "Kubla Khan", John Livingston Lowes claims that the poems are "two from the most remarkable poem in English ". When he switched to the background of the work, he argued, "Coleridge as Coleridge, all said at the same time, is the second moment for our purpose, this is a significant process, not the human, which is our theme, but the marvelous modus operandi > of the genius, in the fresh light I hope to offer, becomes a very abstract and concise note of the faculty's own creative procedure. "After breaking down the various aspects of poetry, Lowes stated," with an uninterrupted and thrilling clarity of clarity, the fragment ends. And with it's ending, for all saving Coleridge, the dream.'The earth has bubbles like water, and here they are.'For 'Kubla Khan' is as close to the charm, I think, because we want to come in this boring world. it is a glamorous throw, enhanced beyond all calculations in dreams, from a distance in time and space - the visionary Presence of the past u vaguely and beautifully and mysteriously contemplative, as Coleridge reads, above the incomprehensible Nile, and the domed pavilions at Cashmere, and the lostness of Xanadu. "He goes on to describe the power of poetry:" For nothing we have seen - domes, rivers, ravines, fountains, ice caves, or floating hairs - or a combination of them holding the secret key to the taste of a magic impenetrable that includes the poem. It was something far more immeasurable, in who could tell what could not be remembered, a vague memory... The poem deepened the magic of all the enchanted Coleridge voicings. "Lowes then concludes about the two works:" Even in the magical four and fifty lines of 'Kubla Khan' is the energy of visualizing so intensely performed as in 'The Ancient Mariner.' But every crystal clear image there is an integral part of the whole that has been consciously formed and conscious... In 'Kubla Khan' interrelated images and irresponsible weaves and noble streams, such as pulsing, fluctuations of the Korean flag North. just as unbelievable as it is... So there is... a glory of 'Kubla Khan' and another glorious 'The Ancient Mariner', as a star different from other stars in glory. "George Watson, in 1966, claimed that Lowes's analysis of the poem" will stand as a permanent monument to historical criticism. "Also in 1966, Kenneth Burke, stated," Count me among those who will see this poem as either a miracle , and as 'in principle' finished "
TS Eliot attacked the reputation of "Kubla Khan" and triggered a dispute in literary criticism with his analysis of poetry in his essay "The Origin and Use of Poetry" from the Use of Poetry and Criticism (1933): "The way of writing poetry is not, our knowledge of things
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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