Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834)
• English lyrical poet, critic, and philosopher, whose Lyrical
Ballads, written with Wordsworth, started the English
Romantic movement.
• Although Coleridge's poetic achievement was small in
quantity, his metaphysical anxiety, anticipating modern
existentialism, has gained him reputation as an authentic
visionary.
• In Cambridge Coleridge met the radical, future poet laureate
Robert Southey (1774-1843) in 1794. Coleridge moved with
him to Bristol to establish a community, but the plan failed.
• In 1795 he married the sister of Southey's fiancée Sara
Fricker, whom he did not really love.
Coleridge and Wordsworth
• Coleridge's collection Poems On Various Subjects was
published in 1796, and in 1797 appeared Poems. In the
same year he began the publication of a short-lived liberal
political periodical The Watchman.
• He started a close friendship with Dorothy and William
Wordsworth, one of the most fruitful creative relationships in
English literature.
• From it resulted Lyrical Ballads, which opened with
Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and ended with
Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey.'
• These poems set a new style by using everyday language
and fresh ways of looking at nature.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• This 625-line ballad is among his essential works. It tells of
a sailor who kills an albatross and for that crime against
nature endures terrible punishments.
• The ship upon which the Mariner serves is trapped in a
frozen sea. An albatross comes to the aid of the ship, it
saves everyone, and stays with the ship until the Mariner
shoots it with his crossbow.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• The motiveless malignity leads to punishment:
• And now there came both mist and show,
• And it grew wondrous cold;
• And ice, mast high, came floating by,
• As green as emerald.
• After a ghost ship passes the crew begin to die but the
mariner is eventually rescued. He knows his penance
will continue and he is only a machine for dictating
always the one story.
Coleridge and Kant
• Disenchanted with the political developments in France, he
visited Germany in 1798-99 with the Wordsworths, and
became interested in the works of Immanuel Kant. He studied
philosophy at Göttingen University and mastered German.
• In 1799 Coleridge fell in love with Sara Hutchinson, the sister
of Wordsworth's future wife, to whom he devoted his work
Dejection: An Ode (1802). During these years Coleridge also
began to compile his Notebooks, daily meditations of his life.
• Suffering from neuralgic and rheumatic pains, Coleridge had
became addicted to opium, freely prescribed by physicians. In
1804 he sailed to Malta in search of better health. He worked
two years as secretary to the governor of Malta, and later
traveled through Sicily and Italy, returning then to England.
Kubla Khan
Or, a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment.
• From 1808 to 1818 he he gave several lectures, chiefly in
London, and was considered the greatest of Shakespearean
critics.
• “Kubla Khan” was inspired by a dream. In the summer of
1797 the author had retired to a lonely farm-house between
Porlock and Linton.
• He had taken anodyne and after three hours sleep he woke
up with a clear image of the poem. Disturbed by a visitor, he
lost the vision, with the exception of some eight or ten
scattered lines and images.
• Modern scholarship is skeptical of this story, but it reflects
Coleridge's problems to manage practical life and finish his
ideas.
Coleridge’s Coleridge’s
farm-house farm-house
Coleridge's note
• The following fragment is here published at the
request of a
Porlock Bay
poet of great and deserved celebrity [Lord Byron], and, as far
as the Author's own opinions are concerned, rather as a
psychological curiosity, than on the ground of any supposed
poetic merits.
• In the summer of the year 1797, the Author, then in ill health,
had retired to a lonely farm-house between Porlock and
Linton, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire.
• In consequence of a slight indisposition, an anodyne had
been prescribed, from the effects of which he fell asleep in his
chair at the moment that he was reading the following
sentence, or words of the same substance, in Purchas's
Pilgrimage: ``Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to
be built, and a stately garden thereunto. And thus ten miles of
fertile ground were inclosed with a wall.''
Coleridge's note
• The Author continued for about three hours in a
profound sleep, at least of the external senses, during
which time he has the most vivid confidence, that he
could not have composed less than from two to three
hundred lines;
• if that indeed can be called composition in which all the
images rose up before him as things, with a parallel
production of the correspondent expressions, without
any sensation or consciousness of effort.
• On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct
recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and
paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that
are here preserved.
• At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a
person on business from Porlock, and detained by him
above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to
his no small surprise and mortification, that though he
still retained some vague and dim recollection of the
general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of
some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the
rest had passed away like the images on the surface of
a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas!
without the after restoration of the latter!
Kubla Khan
• Kublai Khan (1215-1294) was the fifth of the Mongol
great khans and the founder of the Yüan Dynasty in
China (1279-1368).
• He is best known in the West as the Cublai Kaan of
Marco Polo.
• Kublai founded what was intended to be his
brother's new capital but became in effect his own
summer residence, the town of Kaiping. It later was
named Shang-tu or 'Upper Capital' and was
immortalised as the Xanadu of Coleridge's poem.
The Form of “Kubla Khan”
• The chant-like, musical incantations of "Kubla Khan" result
from Coleridge's masterful use of iambic tetrameter and
alternating rhyme schemes.
• The first stanza is written in tetrameter with a rhyme
scheme of ABAABCCDEDE, alternating between staggered
rhymes and couplets.
• The second stanza expands into tetrameter and follows
roughly the same rhyming pattern, also expanded-ABAABCCDDFFGGHIIHJJ.
• The third stanza tightens into tetrameter and rhymes
ABABCC.
• The fourth stanza continues the tetrameter of the third and
rhymes ABCCBDEDEFGFFFGHHG.
Stanza 1
an introduction - the ruler,
the place, the decree
• In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
Alpheus = the classical
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
underground river
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
The Latin origin of the word sacred
has 2 meanings: sacer = 'holy' or
caverns (caves etc.) of measureless,
'connected with a god of the
"superhuman" dimensions, i.e. of
underworld';
the surroundings of the
The river‘s final destination
is a place
expanses which man (human skill or
of extreme darknessriver
and perhaps
indefinitesuit the second
the powers of the human mind) is not
meaning
depth (down to a sunless
sea).best: at least a considerable
able to "fathom" both in a literal and
stretch of the river runs underground.
figurative sense. http://englishromantics.com/kublakhan/index.htm
fulfilment of the decree
Stanza 1 (conti.)
• 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.
Amidst [ancient] hills, shelter
is offered
by
ancient
forests is
A
vivid
picture
of
the
landscape
Natural
conditions
andspots,
the results
of artificial
shaping
seem
which
encompass
sunny
i.e.
clearings
lighted
and
given
here:
twice
five
miles
of
ground
to connect
an(appeal
ideal kind
of environment:
fertile
ground
warmed
by the to
sun
to
visual
and
tactile
perception)
areforreserved
for of
thevarious
"project".
Thee.g.
provides
an
ideal
basis
cultivation
kinds,
which can serve as spaces
for issport,
play(surrounded,
etc. A spectrum
of
area
girdled
confined)
of a can
park-like
area: herewith
were
gardens
bright blossomed
with sinuous
colours
be associated
the
words
bright,
by
walls
and towers.
rills;
the
appeal
to
the
eye
is
matched
by fragrancy
(various colours; eternal spring?), sunny and
greenery
dispersed
by many
an incense-bearing
tree.surrounding
(implicitly
in contrast
to the
darker green of the
• In "Kubla Khan," Samuel Taylor Coleridge employs a
superficially loose and disjointed construction which is
actually carefully designed to trigger associations of
imagery that produce mental echoes of juxtaposed
impressions.
• The lack of a consistent rhyme scheme, the uneven division
of stanzas, and the use of iambic meter with a varying
number of feet all contribute to a sense of disorientation,
which in turn facilitates the process of mental echoing. The
most important element of this effect, however, are the
images themselves:
Stanza 2
• 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 !
Comparison
In
aone
mere
five(as
lines,
... as)
Coleridge
of the
place
evokes
a arush
of impressions
place,
here
First,
a peculiar
climactically
arranged
sequence
of
adjectives
casts
a
On
green
hill
a chasm
,with
i.e.,
ahaunted
deep
with
encompassing
a crevice
placeorvisited
suchruns
frequently
disparate
by
subjects
aplace:
woman,
as
or
anature,
woman's
andspirit,
mysterious
sinister
light
on the
thesex,
chasm
is deep
crack,
etc.,
downward
through,
or
"qualifies"
religion.
it the
as ameaning
to
integrate
thisand
apposition
makes
itofproper;
animagery
ideal
setting
(enhancing
of
the
word
chasm
, for
across,
aUnable
thicket
ofcursed
cedarplace
trees
(slanted
[/] down
...; s.a.)
aromantic
rationally,
scene...of(associations:
"forbidden
conscious
longing
mind or
gives
way
to the
(wailing),
subconscious
connected
beautiful,
andand
wild,
athwart
"the
= across,
especially
inmourning"
awith
sloping
forbidden
process
of;note
love
association,
between
thus
humans
leaving
and
demonic
reader
powers
with
series
(the of
landscape,
adventure,
mystery,
love
etc.;
cf.afollowing
direction"
multipledanger,
meaning
andthe
connotations
woman
+=and
demon-lover).
mysterious
Classically,
impressions
such
that aplace
are
scene
felthard
rather
is set
words)
savage
(naturally
wild,
i.e.
to than
keep
offantastic
coverand
thicket:
roof,
shelter
etc., untamed,
hiding
beneath
understood.
waning
moon
(atmosphere!).
in check aetc.).
concealing
something
from
sight).
• 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 ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
With
the
helpofofthis
illustrative
comparisons,
asimile
graphic
ps, Alph
is
the
source
eruption.
A
complex
illustrates
TheThe
sacred
river
throws
itself
up
violently
(flung
up)
amidst
these
Comparisons
with
familiar
phenomena
serve
to
create
a
description
of
an
eruption
is
given:
From
this
magma
etc.
breaks
forth
with
very
great
speed,
at
short
henomenon:
this earth
shows
traits
of
alikened
suffering
human
or hail,
dancing
rocks.
Its
eruption
takes
place
at
once,
i.e.
either
graphic
picture:
The
rocks
are
to
rebounding
chasm or
... A
mighty fountain
forced, i.e.
driven
out
intervals,
continuously,
with[is]
increasing
and
decreasing
ess),simultaneously,
breathing
...
in
fast
thick
pants,
i.e.
fighting
for
breath
etc.,
or which
suddenly;
theground,
1st meaning
would
rather
suggest
the
grains
of
hit
the
bounce
off,
and
fall
again;
of
the
ground
by
geological
or
supernatural
forces,
intensityup
(swift
half-intermitted
burst);
among
thisinmatter
nally,that
bringing
the
cause
of
the
trouble
(cf.
phlegm;
Alph
is
identical
with
the
fountain,
assuming
a
new
form to
and
Chaffy
grain
behaves
in
a
similar
way
when,
in
order
momently,
i.e. i.e.
at that
moment,boulders
or at intervals.
The
huge
fragments,
enormous
of
rock,
or lumps
of
quality,
and
is
continuing
to
erupt;
the
2nd
meaning
would
imply
natural
terms:
the
evil).
separate
the chaff
fromejection
the usable
grain,iswheat
etc. is
gigantic
and
powerful
of
water
seething
are hurled
into the
air
(vault
=fountain,
"jump"; and
connotation:
thatmagma,
this
eruption
is
additional
to
that
of
the
that Alph
beaten
beneath
the
thresher's
flail,
a
stick
with
a
club
with
endless
turmoil,
displaying
the
visual
and
the
trajectories
of
the
falling
fragments
arch
like a ground).
vault).
doesattached
not begintotoitmingle
with
it
until
this
point
(cf.
backformerly
forreaching
this purpose.
auditory properties
of used
a liquid
its boiling
Running in bends, changing its direction
as if moving through a labyrinth.
• 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 far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
Amid this tumult, Kubla perceives Ancestral voices, i.e.
the voices of (wise) forefathers, or those of religious
prophets etc. They come from far (figurative meaning:
from heaven2etc.), announcing the event of war, which
Stanza
implies the destruction of the pleasure-dome etc. and loss
(conti.)
of human
life.
Repeating the contrasting images of the sunny pleasure-dome
(connotations: warmth, brightness etc.) and the caves of ice (=
caverns, s.a.; connotations: cold, darkness etc.) the speaker
• The
shadow ofofthe
of pleasure
gives
his evaluation
the dome
phenomenon
depicted in the
preceding
lines;
he terms
as awaves
miracle,
Floated
midway
onitthe
; i.e. an unexpected
eventWhere
of a superand, at the
same time, as based
wasnatural
heard kind,
the mingled
measure
uponFrom
a verythe
peculiar
kind and
of design
or plan (of rare device).
fountain
the caves.
Stanza 3
It was a miracle of rare device,
Here one Afinds
oneself
on the "dark" side
the pleasure-dome
which
sunny
pleasure-dome
withofcaves
of ice !
casts its shadow on the surface of the flowing lava and/or water where
it is reflected and appears to be moving on the flow. In this way the
material manifestation of too great human ambition or aspiration as the
potential source of catastrophe, is associated with the disaster. Auditory
impressions blend with the visual ones: at the same location, the
mingled measure (mixed acoustic quality) of the noises originating from
the fountain and the caves is audible.
Stanza 4
• It is thought that the final stanza of the poem, thematizing the
idea of the lost vision through the figure of the "damsel with a
dulcimer" and the milk of Paradise, was written postinterruption.
• The mysterious person from Porlock is one of the most
notorious and enigmatic figures in Coleridge's biography; no
one knows who he was or why he disturbed the poet or what
he wanted or, indeed, whether any of Coleridge's story is
actually true.
• But the person from Porlock has become a metaphor for the
malicious interruptions the world throws in the way of
inspiration and genius, and "Kubla Khan," strange and
ambiguous as it is, has become what is perhaps the definitive
statement on the obstruction and thwarting of the visionary
genius.
Deeply impressed, the
speaker voices a complex
Stanza 4
wish, the first part of which
The imagination of this scene wouldexplicitly
give him,refers
or gain
him,vision
to the
•very
A damsel
with profound
a dulcimerpleasure. The speaker is not only
intensive,
itself which he would like to
Incontrast
a visionof
I sawpalace
: impact
In
toonce
Kubla's
etc. and
particular
features
of the
conscious
the
emotional
ofreproduce
the
visionand
(the
delight)
re-experience
It was
an
Abyssinian
maid,
landscape
of
Xanadu,
that
(sunny)
dome
andconnected
those
caves
of
but
also
of
the
potential
inspirational
powers
with
The process of "building"
this paradise-like
place
would,
in his mind.
And
on her
dulcimer
she
ice
would
beas
built
air,
i.e.played,
beimagination,
founded
an
immaterial
this
delight:
"imaginative
potential"onit be
is the
essentialbasis
according
toan
thein
speaker's
accompanied
by
Singing of Mount
Abora.
(associations:
"lofty"
skyand
or heaven
as
opposed
"low"
prerequisite
to
the
fulfilment
of
another
partdamsel's
of histowish
- earth,
hiss.a.;
music (cf. the nature
quality
of the
music;
Could
I versus
revive
within
me
the
light
the
heavy
element,
over-all brightness
versus
The
speaker
recalls
a
vision,
beautiful
sight
and/or
a i.e.
own
building
or
designing
of
ai.e.
paradise-like
place.
celestial music, harmony
of
thea spheres)
loud and
long,
Her symphony
andthesong,
(partial)
darkness;
poetic
genius'
immaterial,
indestructible
dreamlike
experience,
which,
however,
is
not
restricted
to
of a great intensity and extensive (eternal?) duration.
To such
a deep the
delight
'twouldorwin
me,from
paradise
versus
genius'
doomed
paradise
of
visual
impressions:
acommanding
damsel,
maid,
Abyssinia
(location
That
with
music
and
long,
material
gigantomania,
etc.).
of
"Eden"),
sings loud
of Mount
Abora (high place, mountain of the
I would
build
that Amara",
dome in air,
Gods
etc.;
"Mount
the place where "Abassin", i.e.
That sunnyprinces
dome !were
thosereared).
caves ofShe
iceaccompanies
!
Abyssinian
herself on
a dulcimer.
The speaker
demands
of the
reader
or listener
The
speaker's
imagination
leaves
this
place
open
allperform
who
In
The
contrast
second
toact
Kubla,
is to
the
close
"commanding
your
eyes
with
genius",
holy
dread,
he to to
acts
reverence
orbeen
awe etc.
towards
this
heard,
i.e.
has
able
orThe
willing
to figure:
perceive
Stanza
appears
i.e.
with
awe
toofeverybody
begreat
towards
the4legitimate,
awho
superhuman
"absolute
being.
genius"
infigure
the first
act,
which
reminds
symbolic
the music
orby
the
poem;
he
wishes
(should...)
orainvites them to
command
represented
of
"Paradise
the
words
regained",
his
andofhe
i.e.
isa characterised
god orgestures
performed
during
a religious
magic
or
useflashing
their
own
imagination
and
seeorathem[selves]
there.
figure
by
entitled
eyes
to
the
which
rights
might
of
ahave
god,
God
blinding
theconjuration
effect
on The
incantation,
isfigure
toofi.e.
Weave
circle
round
him
thrice
reaction
he
them
all should
Beware!
...),
Almighty,
humans,
floating
etc.expects
Thehair,
could
hair(...amoving
theoretically
in thecry,
be
wind
or (Weave
circle;
here:
to describe
by symbolic
cries aof
warning,
fear,
aweofetc.,
iscircle
directed
towards
the
identical
storm
(cf.
with
pictorial
the
speaker
representations
theapoem,
of ancient
who,
inspired
gods), gestures).
dominating
figure
of
the lastwould
part
theonpoem.
by
and
the
finally,
muses
by
(the
the assumption
damsel),
thatofhave
He
attained
honey-dew
the
status
[has] fed
of a[/]"poetic
And drunk
genius"
the milk
in command
of Paradise,
of a i.e.
paradise
has
• And all who heard should see them there,
of
been
imagination,
entitled toi.e.
share
the the
realm
privileges
of the poet's
of gods
inspiration;
(cf. the
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
in
ancient
this case,
gods'the
consuming
last four lines
ambrosia
wouldand
rather
nectar).
be
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
uttered by all than by the speaker himself.
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.
Bitter Life
• In 1810 Coleridge's friendship with Wordsworth came to
crisis, and the two poets never fully returned to the
relationship they had earlier.
• During the following years Coleridge lived in London, on the
verge of suicide. After a physical and spiritual crisis at
Greyhound Inn, Bath, he submitted himself to a series of
medical régimes to free himself from opium.
• He found a permanent harbor in Highgate in the household
of Dr. James Gillman, and enjoyed almost legendary
reputation among the younger Romantics. During this time
he rarely left the house.
The End of his Life
• In 1816 the unfinished poems “Christabel” and “Kubla Khan”
were published, and next year appeared Sibylline Leaves.
• After 1817 Coleridge devoted himself to theological and
politico-sociological works - his final position was that of a
Romantic conservative and Christian radical.
• He also contributed to several magazines, among them
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.
• Coleridge was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature in 1824.
• He died in Highgate, near Londonon July 25, 1834.
Wordsworth & Coleridge
• Wordsworth is clearly more entitled than Coleridge to be
considered the leader in creating and also in expounding a
new kind of poetry.
• Until Coleridge met Wordsworth, which was probably in
1795, he wrote in the manner which had been fashionable
since the death of Milton, employing without hesitation all
those poetic licenses which constituted what he later
termed `Gaudyverse,' in contempt.
• If one reads Coleridge's early poems in chronological order,
one will perceive that Gaudyverse persists till about the
middle of 1795, and then quickly yields to the natural style
which Wordsworth was practicing.
Coleridge’s Conversation Poems
• Coleridge's shorter, meditative "conversation poems," proved
to be the most influential of his work.
• Conversation poems are poems in which the speaker
addresses his lines to a listener within the poem, generally a
listener who has little voice of his own.
• These include both quiet poems like This Lime-Tree Bower
My Prison and Frost at Midnight and also strongly emotional
poems like Dejection and The Pains of Sleep.
• Wordsworth immediately adopted the model of these poems,
and used it to compose several of his major poems. Via
Wordsworth, the conversation poem became a standard
vehicle for English poetic expression, and perhaps the most
common approach among modern poets.