Kubla Khan As An Opium Dream 1

The romantic psychology of poetic invention is what we may call imagination.
In Biographia Literaria, Coleridge distinguishes between fancy and imagination, the latter being a superior faculty which dissolves, dissipates, diffuses in order to recreate. The greatest poetry reconciles the opposites of nature and art. Kubla Khan is hence more than just an opium dream, for it is the celebration of imagination. Kubla Khan represents poets of all ages, and the absoluteness conveyed by his name fails to be transferred to his creation-between the person and the performance falls the shadow. The poem begins in Xanadu, a place in the east, evoking the spirit of birth and creation. The river Alph, flowing through caverns measureless to man, suggests realism which is vouchsafed only to a poet. The Romantics preoccupation with the myths and the mystic is echoed in the very choice of these imageries. Kublas dome is a story of romanticism, accommodating twice five miles of fertile ground/With walls and towers were girdled round: The dome needs to be protected, and therefore is a fall of the poetry. Kublas dome claims to capture both the garden of innocence and the forest of experience and thus is Coleridges assertion that the earthly paradise the Poet creates is superior to the paradise man has lost. The word fertile prompts a psycho-sexual experience- the entire first part correspond to an act of sexual union as the poet seeks to be impregnated with the spirit which would cause the womb of the dome. The images of fertile, caverns, fast thick pants, a mighty fountain momently was forced represents the birth of poetry. The savage place is the site where the poet dissolves, diffuses, dissipates in order to recreate and is therefore holy. The demon lover is the supernatural solicitation of poetry through imagination, the woman is as if the poet himself, revelling in the glory of being able to procreate perfect poetry. Nature seems to be an objective correlative for the eruption that is occurring within the poets mindAnd from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething As if this Earth in fast thick pants were breathing A mighty fountain momently was forced:. The mighty fountain is the fountain of poetry occurring in swift half-intermitted bursts. But every moment happening is every moment lost and even the sacred river, the poets imagination, after five miles of mazy motion must sink to a lifeless ocean- the feel of poetry is for a moment as the experience of Elfin Grot is but transitory. It is the knowledge of this that the ancestral voices seem to be prophesying- since the dawn of perception, no poem could capture the poetry that is in the Poets imagination. The dome incorporates the mingled measure, the marriage of fundamental opposites- life and death, creation and destruction and so on. The image of shadow suggests instability-between the desire and the spasm fall the shadow. In the last part Coleridge reaches out to the readers directly. Music is a common theme is the romantics, and the eternal music of the Abyssinian maid singing at Mt. Abora as if becomes the spirit of the song- the song resonates in the entire imaginative canvas of the poet and he says that Could I revive within me/her symphony and song, he would produce the dome in air. If the poet could act out his vision he would appear as Apollo with flashing eyes and floating air, or the rising Orc, the fiery don of the new Beulah, or Nataraj, who had drunk the milk of paradise. The poet in his emotional frenzy would then frighten everybody with his unfamiliar form. The poem is a manifestation of the failure to achieve a synthesis between the Dionysian and the Apollonian.
The romantic psychology of poetic invention is what we may call imagination. In Biographia Literaria, Coleridge distinguishes between fancy and imagination, the latter being a superior faculty which dissolves, dissipates, diffuses in order to recreate. The greatest poetry reconciles the opposites of nature and art. Kubla Khan is hence more than just an opium dream, for it is the celebration of imagination. Kubla Khan represents poets of all ages, and the absoluteness conveyed by his name fails to be transferred to his creation-between the person and the performance falls the shadow. The poem begins in Xanadu, a place in the east, evoking the spirit of birth and creation. The river Alph, flowing through caverns measureless to man, suggests realism which is vouchsafed only to a poet. The Romantics preoccupation with the myths and the mystic is echoed in the very choice of these imageries. Kublas dome is a story of romanticism, accommodating twice five miles of fertile ground/With walls and towers were girdled round: The dome needs to be protected, and therefore is a fall of the poetry. Kublas dome claims to capture both the garden of innocence and the forest of experience and thus is Coleridges assertion that the earthly paradise the Poet creates is superior to the paradise man has lost.

Kubla Khan As An Opium Dream 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kubla Khan As An Opium Dream 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kubla Khan As An Opium Dream 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The romantic psychology of poetic invention is what we may call imagination.

You might also like