Post on 07-Jan-2016
description
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round :And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Xanadu was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China,
before he decided to move the seat of his dynasty to the Jin Dynasty capital of
Zhōngdū, which he renamed Dàdū, the present-day Beijing.
Kublai Khan: (September 23, 1215 – February 18,
1294); the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from
1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China.
The references to Xanadu and Kubla Khan link to the
characteristic of exoticism, they also serve to place the
poem in a time and place. To what extent do we see the
characteristic of medievalism in this poem?
The syntax is inverted, in the first line, giving an imperious tone.
syntax = the grammatical arrangement of wordsimperious = domineering, arrogant, overbearing
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round :And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
The references to Xanadu and Kubla Khan link to the
characteristic of exoticism, they also serve to place the
poem in a time and place. To what extent do we see the
characteristic of medievalism in this poem?
The syntax is inverted, in the first line, giving an imperious tone.
syntax = the grammatical arrangement of wordsimperious = domineering, arrogant, overbearing
The name "Alph" might also make us think of the Greek letter "Alpha" which is the first
letter of the Greek alphabet, and a symbol of beginnings.
First four lines have a clear rhythm (iambic tetrameter)
and rhyme sequence. Gives it a drum-like, marching feel,
that matches the royal connotations from the first
two lines.
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round :And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
The references to Xanadu and Kubla Khan link to the
characteristic of exoticism, they also serve to place the
poem in a time and place. To what extent do we see the
characteristic of medievalism in this poem?
The syntax is inverted, in the first line, giving an imperious tone.
syntax = the grammatical arrangement of wordsimperious = domineering, arrogant, overbearing
The name "Alph" might also make us think of the Greek letter "Alpha" which is the first
letter of the Greek alphabet, and a symbol of beginnings.
First four lines have a clear rhythm (iambic tetrameter)
and rhyme sequence. Gives it a drum-like, marching feel,
that matches the royal connotations from the first
two lines.
Language becomes more
positively emotive.
fertilesinuous
blossomedsunny spots of
greenery
'girdled' = surrounded'sinuous =
winding'rill' = small river
Note that the new environment is
smaller and manageable, and
thereby more inviting to the
senses
The language in lines 6 - 11 is now more positive. The place is inviting. Unlike the previous setting which had a sense of the unknown with its 'caverns measureless to man' and the horror of a 'sunless sea' this place is well-defined -
'twice five miles' and safe - 'girdled round' and 'enfolded'. Coleridge uses highly descriptive language 'sinuous rills' and 'incense bearing tree'. The image the reader is left with is of a safe and happy place. This is a good place, and
could link to the Romantics view of nature as being a positive and nurturing power.
But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slantedDown the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !A savage place ! as holy and enchantedAs e'er beneath a waning moon was hauntedBy woman wailing for her demon-lover !And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Passionate exclamation, which shows the poet's
feelings towards the place
deep suggests its size combined with the connotations in chasm
emphasizes the great size
Chasm = yawning fissure, deep cleft, gorge Athwart = from side to side, crosswise
cedarn cover =
the hillside is covered in cedar
trees
The river is shown to be
violent completely
different to the sinuous rills of
earlier
The use of exclamatio
n marks conveys
excitement
Waning Moon means the
moon is decreasing in size, moving from the Full
Moon towards the New Moon. This is a time for spells that
banish, release, reverse.
Coleridge creates a series of contrasts
(dichotomies). He continues
the comparison by saying that it is a savage a place as there
could be
There are a number of images of fertility in this section:
*green * lover There is also near sexual images in the final lines
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up momently the sacred river.Five miles meandering with a mazy motionThrough wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Coleridge creates images of power and
intensity as the river collides with rocks, sending up plumes of
water.
The river is likened to
hail or chaff falling to the
ground
The river has bee described as a passionate, violent entity. In the last 2 lines the tone changes. The
alliteration on the 'm' slows the pace of the lines. Combined with the word meandering and mazy motion
we get an image of e river slowing down. This can be seen to be an example of the cyclical nature of his
poems as we are back to the start again.
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from farAncestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasureFloated midway on the waves ;Where was heard the mingled measureFrom the fountain and the caves.
Repetition of images from the beginning of the poem
Tumult = noisy disturbance, mental or emotional disturbance
Images from his past/ancestors.
Takes us into the next section
of the poemDescription of
the scene. Rhyme scheme
and rhythm emphasize the pleasant scene
and sounds
It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice ! A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw :It was an Abyssinian maid,And on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora.Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
Tempo changes,
quick sounds
Further contrasts (sun - ice)
There are many contrasts
between the dome and
cavern:* natural v man-
made* above ground v below ground* symmetrical v
irregular* sunny v frozen
The opposites clashing gives the em a lot of
kits energy
Poet tells us of a new vision
Damsel = young, in married woman
Conflicting views on Mt Abora
* real place in Ethiopia
* biblical reference* place mentioned
in Paradise Lost
The key to this new vision is not to over think it. It is a fond memory (shown in the last line - positive/emotive word delight.) Coleridge clearly is referring to a time which he wishes he could bring back (a better time - link to anti-industry?) The
vision then becomes a metaphor.
That with music loud and long,I would build that dome in air,That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !And all who heard should see them there,And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !His flashing eyes, his floating hair !Weave a circle round him thrice,And close your eyes with holy dread,For he on honey-dew hath fed,And drunk the milk of Paradise.
The link that we see earlier
continues here. The poet wants to
revive the music he remembers. If he could do that he believes he could create amazing
things.
Pausanias
Pausanias was a Greek travel writer in the second century AD, who described natural phenomena, and cities, covering their daily life, ceremonies, beliefs, and artwork in such detail that even today we can recognize what he was talking about.
Coleridge's copy of Thomas Taylor's 1794 translation (Pausanias, The Description of Greece, translated by Thomas Taylor, 1794)ended up in William Wordsworth's library. Coleridge had probably read the original Greek, as well. Alph, the first of rivers
The story of the river Alpheus descending into the earth, and then rising up in fountains appears in Pausanias, whom Coleridge probably read in the original, as well as in Thomas Taylor's translation.
Coleridge could not get enough of Taylor, according to Lowes. Speaking of this story, Lowes says that Coleridge "Could scarcely have escaped it in Pausanias."
Pausanias does draw an explicit parallel between the Nile and the Alpheus, a connection that Lowes feels lies behind much of the imagery in Kubla Khan. Like Alph, the sacred river in Kubla Khan, the Alpheus runs far below the earth, emerges in a fountain, and runs toward the sea. Text
But the Alpheus appears to possess something different from other rivers; for it often hides itself in the earth, and again rises out of it. Thus it…merges itself in the Tegeatic land. Ascending from hence in Asaea, and mingling itself with the water of Eurotas, it falls a second time into the earth, emerges from hence, in that place which the Arcadians call the fountains, and running through the Pisaean and Olympian plains, pours itself into the sea…Nor can the agitation of the Adriatic sea restrain its course; for running through this mighty and violent sea, it mingles itself with the water of Arethusa in Ortygia…retaining its ancient name Alpheus.
John Livingston Lowes (December 20, 1867, Decatur, Indiana – August 15, 1945, Boston, Massachusetts) was an American scholar of English literature, specializing in Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Geoffrey Chaucer.
Lowes's most famous work is The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination (Houghton Mifflin, 1927), which examines the sources of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. Using Coleridge's notebook and other papers at the Bristol Library, Lowes put together a list of books that the poet read before and during the time he composed his poems.
BACK
Iambic tetrameter is a meter (the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse) in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four iambic feet.
An iamb consists of a short syllable followed by a long syllable.
The word "tetrameter" simply means that there are four feet in the line. A line of iambic tetrameter consists of four such feet in a row:
da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
BACK