A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment
It would have been nearly impossible to
guess that it takes its roots from a dream or that it is a result of a
“psychological curiosity” and that it is fragmented. The poem talks about
Coleridge’s dream till line 36 and from thereon it takes a more personalised
route that is explained further on. There is precision and clarity in the first
part and disorder in the second part (The part where Coleridge is trying to
recollect his dream and exhibiting his frustration at not being able to do so)
After the first perusal, there are
primarily three themes that I am able to infer from the poem.
- Kubla Khan is about the act of poetic creation and it explores the potentialities of a perfect poetic composition. Perfect poetic composition, according to Coleridge is one that combines both sacredness and pleasure, that unifies both the earthly and the heavenly. If the poem is interpreted using this theme the core of the poem is the following segment :-
“The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated
midway on the waves;”
Here, the luxurious palace
and the pure waves of the sacred river, Alph appear as one.
- Kubla Khan can also be a representation of mankind and the poem becomes all about the ethical and practical natures of man and about the futility of man-made creations.
- A third perspective can be that Coleridge is lamenting the failure of imaginative creation.
Of the three themes, the
first seems most apt and the third the least based on how much I am able to
relate the poem to the theme when analysing line to line. Here is a detailed
analysis of the poem with respect to the themes that have been already mentioned.
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately
pleasure-dome decree:”
The first two lines seem to be inspired
from the text that Coleridge had been reading before he dozed off.
“In
Xamdu did Cublai Can builde a stately Palace, encompassing sixteene miles of
plaine ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant springs,
delightful Streames, and all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the
middest thereof a suptuous house of pleasure.”
Xamdu must have been changes to Xanadu to
fit the meter.
“Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through
caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea. ”
An important entity in the poem is the
river ‘Alph’. The river is sacred and provides fertility to the meadows around
Cublai Khan’s palace. If we take ‘Alph’ to mean ‘alpha’, the river might be
taken to be a beginning, a beginning/source of all things pure/sacred, of all
things natural or a source of Life on earth. This river flows through areas
that are beyond man’s understanding and it finally ends when it joins a
‘sunless sea’ which, I assume, is death.
“So twice five miles of fertile ground
With 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”
Coleridge is now back at the description of
Kubla Khan’s palace and the description gives it a paradise-like feel. In fact,
it appears to be a balance of earthly and heavenly beauty. The gardens planted
by man and the ‘ancient’ forests were present in a state of harmony. The
landscape is highly ordered and has a sense of calm to it.
(Perfect poetic creation is an embodiment
of both earthly and heavenly qualities. Ultimate way of living is a combination
of earthly pleasures and heavenly sacredness)
“But oh! that deep romantic chasm which
slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover! ”
Now Coleridge is describing a chaotic,
supernatural and somewhat eerie but ‘holy’ ‘chasm’ at a distance away from the
palace/paradise. It’s not very clearly visible from Kubla Khan’s palace just as
a waning moon does not have a very high visibility. The wailing woman adds a
haunted feel to the chasm but there might be more meaning to it than that.
“And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil
seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:”
These lines are an imagery for child birth,
turbulent and uneasy. The earth is giving birth to a fountain.
“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 ever
It flung up momently the sacred river. ”
And from this fountain arises the sacred
river along with boulders/rocks that are violent and heavy as hail and also as
light as the chaff that arises from threshing of grains. The wordings make the
verse highly energetic and unstable while the rhythm is pretty controlled.
“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 thus, from its tumultuous source, the
sacred river flows through Kubla Khan’s palatial grounds. Here, I am almost
sure that the river Alph signifies the source of life and energy on earth. The
chaotic and turbulent start of the river’s journey is what I associate with the
Big Bang or the ‘beginning’ or alpha of all life and this is what strengthens
my belief. The last two lines are an echo of lines 4 and 5 used earlier. “Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. ”. Sunless
sea/Lifeless ocean is the summit of the river which I associate with death.
Repetition brings out the significance of the river a lot more clearly and slows
the rhythm of the poem to match the pace of the river itself (from an anarchic
beginning to a calm journey through paradise).
“And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!”
Although Kubla Khan’s pleasure dome is calm
and harmonized at the moment, he is getting a different message from the
disturbances in the chasm. The sturdiest man-made creations can also be blown
to splinters if the forces of nature so desire it is what his ancestors are
trying to convey to him, most probably from experience. Thus any poetic
creation is unstable until and unless it is able to placate nature as well as
be a source of pleasure. It can also mean that man can try to create his own
paradise on earth but it can be turned to ruins by forces of nature. Balance
between the earthly and the heavenly is the perfect recipe for a stable
harmony.
“The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.”
The dome of pleasure or the palace is now
just a shadow of its former self. It has been overshadowed by the ferocity of
the fountain which amplifies the message that all that man creates is
ephemeral, nature is continual and steadfast. The word-play shows what it is
like to have a perfect balance between pleasure and sacredness. The shadow of the dome of pleasure floated
midway on waves depicts a union of the dome and the river
“It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! ”
The slow pace of these two lines along with
the usage of past tense indicates that Kubla Khan’s majestic creation has now
vanished off the face of the earth. The usage of opposing entities together
which has been used throughout the entire poem to bring more effect is very
noticeable here. The dome is sunny and has caves of ice. Sunny gives off a
pleasant effect while ice adds strength and hardness. Thus poetic creations
should have both soft and hard facets to enhance their effect. Or it could also
mean that you cannot live life to its fullest and cannot learn every lesson
that the journey of life has to offer if you’re under the sun all the time.
Life has to be pleasant sometimes and cruel and cold at others if it has to
nurture one into a strong, stable individual.
“A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora. ”
The poem shifts from a third person
perspective to a first person perspective which indicates that he has now been
interrupted and has lost most of the dream.
‘A damsel with a dulcimer’ is
probably the dream that Coleridge had. Like the ‘Abyssinian maid’ the dream he
had was also foreign, of and about a foreign land and a foreign personality.
The maid sang of Mount Abora which probably refers to Kubla Khan’s paradise
because it provides ‘deep delight’
“ Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep
delight ’twould win me,
That with
music loud and long,
I would build
that dome in air, ”
There can be two interpretations of these
lines. One can be that Coleridge pines to recall that symphony (symphony
probably indicates creative imagination which the poet wishes to incorporate
into his composition) but is not able to. Hence these lines become all about
Coleridge’s frustration for the loss of creative power and imagination lament
imaginative failure. Another is that Colerdge is discussing the achievements
that are possible in terms of poetic creativity if one can effectively use
one’s imagination. The second interpretation is more probable than the first
because the meter of these lines is light and fast and these lines along with
the lines that follow emanate a lot of enthusiasm.
“That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,”
Through these lines Coleridge is trying to
describe the capacity of a perfect poetic composition. It is like that pleasure
dome that Kubla Khan decreed but the difference is that it has not been
‘girdled’ by walls. This pleasure dome is for all and sundry or such a
composition appeals to all classes.
“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”
Continuing with the effects of an
impeccable poetic composition, Coleridge now expounds on what a poet who
creates such a composition feels like. His eyes glitter and his hair are in
complete frenzy. This frenzy reminds me of the chaos and tumult that are characteristic
of the ‘chasm’ from which the river Alph begins. Such a poet is seen with ‘holy
dread’ and this makes me refer back to the chasm which is savage and thus needs
to be dreaded and is also sacred.
“ For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.”
Such a poet has experienced ultimate
pleasure (Inference is from the statement that he has fed on honey-dew or
nectar which has been labelled as the food for Gods in Greek Mythology and
drunk the milk of Paradise. Paradise starts with a capital P indicates that
this paradise is the heavenly one and not a man-made entity). This poet has
united both the energetic chasm and the calm palace of Kubla Khan and as a
result tasted Paradise.
