SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

ALL ABOUT COLERIDGE was born on 21 October 1772 in the country

town of Ottery St Mary, Devonshire, England Samuel's father, the Reverend John

Coleridge (1718–1781), was a well-respected vicar of the parish and headmaster of Henry VIII's Free Grammar School at Ottery. He had three children by his first wife. Samuel was the youngest of ten by Reverend Coleridge's second wife, Anne Bowden (1726–1809

ALL ABOUT COLERIDGE

Coleridge suggests that he "took no pleasure in boyish sports" but instead read "incessantly" and played by himself.

After John Coleridge died in 1781, 8-year-old Samuel was sent to Christ's Hospital, a charity school founded in the 16th century in Greyfriars, London, where he remained throughout his childhood, studying and writing poetry.

ALL ABOUT COLERIDGE

Once he ran away after a fight and collapsed on a riverbank, where he spent the night and almost froze to death. As a result, he suffered from a painful case of rheumatism. Opium was then a standard medical treatment for such a condition, so he grew up depending on the drug.

ALL ABOUT COLERIDGE

his relationship with his mother was problematic. He was rarely allowed to return home during the school term, and this distance from his family at such a turbulent time proved emotionally damaging.

From 1791 until 1794, Coleridge attended Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1792, he won the Browne Gold Medal for an ode that he wrote on the slave trade.

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At age 25 he met the poet William Wordsworth. They became good friends and Wordsworth and his sister Dorotrhy moved to Somerset to be near Coleridge.

Began their famous collaboration on Lyrical Ballads, which was published in 1798 and included Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

ALL ABOUT COLERIDGE

By early thirties, Coleridge composed one more poetic masterpiece– Kubla Khan

He also became the greatest literary critic, an influential philosopher, journalist, and literary theorist.

Died on October 21, 1772

KUBLA KHAN

The Composition of Kubla Khan

Coleridge had been taking opium to ease the pain of his rheumatism, and to distract his troubled mind he was reading a travel book called Purchas His Pilgrimage by Samuel Purchas

He fell asleep after reading a passage relating how Kubla Khan, the 13th century founder of the Mongol dnasty in China, built a beautiful palace amid a tropical paradise.

The Composition of Kubla Khan

According to Coleridge, during his nap he literally dreamed up three hundred lines of poetry.

On waking, he began writing the poem, but was interrupted by a visitor. When he returned to his work an hour later, he could not remember the rest, and the poem remains an unfinished fragment.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through 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.

Kubla Khan: Narrative (Literal Interpretation)

Xanadu- an altered form of Xanadu, a residence of Kubla KhanKubla Khan- grandson of Genghis KhanDecree- means order. Kubla Khan ordered that a pleasure dome be builtAlph- probably in reference to the Greek river Alpheussinuous rills- winding streams

The poem's speaker starts by describing the setting of Emperor's palace, which he calls a "pleasure dome." He tells us about a river that runs across the land and then flows through some underground caves and into the sea. He also tells us about the fertile land that surrounds the palace. The nearby area is covered in streams, sweet-smelling trees, and beautiful forests. 

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 haunted 

By 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:Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst 

Huge 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. 

athwart a cedarn – across a covering of cedarsMomently- from moment to momentIntermitted- interrupted

The speaker tells us about the chasm through which the river flows. He makes it into a spooky, haunted place, where you might find a "woman wailing for her demon lover." He describes how the river leaps and smashes through the chasm, first exploding up into a noisy fountain and then finally sinking down and flowing through those underground caves into the ocean far away. 

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

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. 

It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

 

Measure- tuned or melody; a rhythmic soundDevice- design

The speaker then goes on to describe Kubla Khan himself, who is listening to this noisy river and thinking about war. The pleasure dome’s shadow floated on the waves, where the mingled sounds of the fountain and the caves could be heard.

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,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.

Abyssinian- “from Abyssinia,” the former name of Ethiopia in East AfricaMount Abora- probably a reference to Mount Amara in EthiopiaHis, him, he- refer to the speaker of the poem

All of a sudden, the speaker moves away from the landscape and tells us about another vision he had, where he saw an Abyssinian maid who played her dulcimer and sang “of Mount Abora.” He says that if he could revive “her symphony and song” within him, he would rebuild the pleasure dome out of music, and all who heard him would cry “Beware!” of “his flashing eyes, his floating hair!” The hearers would circle him thrice and close their eyes with “holy dread,” knowing that he had tasted honeydew, “and drunk the milk of Paradise”

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through 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- an altered form of Xanadu, a residence of Kubla KhanKubla Khan- grandson of Genghis KhanDecree- means order. Kubla Khan ordered that a pleasure dome be builtAlph- probably in reference to the Greek river Alpheussinuous rills- winding streams

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 haunted 

By 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:Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst 

Huge 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. 

athwart a cedarn – across a covering of cedarsMomently- from moment to momentIntermitted- interrupted

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

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. 

It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

Measure- tuned or melody; a rhythmic soundDevice- design

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,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.

Abyssinian- “from Abyssinia,” the former name of Ethiopia in East AfricaMount Abora- probably a reference to Mount Amara in EthiopiaHis, him, he- refer to the speaker of the poem