Samuel T. Coleridges Kubla Khan is a poem of two opposing ideas: materialism and imagination. In the poem, Coleridge presents imagination and emotion as the means to achieving pure pleasure and creating paradise. He does this by depicting two separate creations of a pleasure dome. One, made by Kubla Khan (a Chinese emperor in the 13th century), was founded on materialistic greed and was created in physical reality, infecting an already present paradise in nature. This now contaminated paradise is doomed to be destroyed.
A first-person narrator in the rest of the poem discusses being able to create this pleasure dome in his mind, thus achieving the experience of pure pleasure. In addition to the basic portrayals of materialism and imagination, Coleridge associates religious views, specifically those of paganism and Christianity, with each one. The pagan emphasis on nature and the abstract ties in with the ideals and, in the words of John McKay, emotional exuberance [and] unretrsained imagination (766) of the romantic period. Christianitys great desire to continuously spread, as well as its comparatively ungrateful attitude toward nature and its superstitious rejection of most forms of pleasure as negative and evil, fits in with Kubla Khans materialistic pleasure dome as well as the presumed attitude toward the narrators creation. Coleridge communicates all of this in Kubla Khan with allusions, imagery, recurring ideas (both in repetition and of actual ideas), and excellent and elaborate diction throughout. All of these (particularly the imagery and the repetition) are characteristic of romantic poetry, so not only do Coleridges beliefs fall in line with the many of the ideals of romanticism, his techniques reflect those used by other romantic poets. Kubla Khan, the source of the title of the poem as well as the creator of the first pleasure dome, is representative of all those who desire control over territory and land. The real Khan was an emperor focused on territorial gain.
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He conquered several other dynasties in China and made attempts to conquer Japan, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Indonesia. It is of note that when Kubla Khan was written, Napoleon had recently come into power in France. His land-hungry crusades throughout Europe could have inspired Coleridge to use a historical leader (specifically Khan) as his figure of materialistic greed. Kubla Khans pleasure dome is a futile attempt by mankind to capture and physically create the epitome of pleasure in the form of a paradise. By making this attempt, Kubla Khan is contaminating an already existing paradise. Coleridge shows a sensitive appreciation of the nature on which the pleasure dome in built throughout the first stanza in which he describes it.
Coleridge notes Alph, the sacred river, caverns measureless to man, a sunless sea, twice five miles of fertile ground, gardens bright with sinuous rills, an incense-bearing tree, forests as ancient as the hills, and sunny spots of greenery. Most of these images, in addition to portraying a setting with almost every imaginable natural formation, have a deeper significance. The allusion to five in twice five miles of fertile ground is making this setting closely tied in with the spirit and paganism, as the number five is extremely meaningful in pagan beliefs as the fifth element, or the spirit. This connection intensifies Coleridges approval of the natural setting of the pleasure dome as he and other romantics fall in line with the many beliefs of pagans as well as the belief in abstract qualities such as the spirit. The image of the caverns measureless to man is an image that rebels against science, as they are incapable of being defined (measured) by man. This rebellion is very typical of romantic poets as they reject the scientific rationality of the preceding time period, the Enlightenment.
The Essay on Poetry Analysis Of Silver And The Moon
Five blind men, all possessing accurate but different portrayals of an elephant, show the new dimension one possess from looking at things from different perspectives. Supervising the activities on Earth, the only natural satellite on the Water Planet is perceived differently amongst the Homo sapiens roaming on it. Silver by Walter de la Mare and The Moon by P.B. Shelley are two insights on the ...
By making the caverns indefinable, Coleridge criticizes Khans comparatively commonplace creation of the pleasure dome. The gardens bright with sinuous rills are used to, in a very complex manner, criticize the preceding image of the walls and towers girdled round (which is used to contrast all the surrounding nature images and is comparatively ugly and out of place, the alliteration of a strong but sickly w sound in with walls emphasizes this ugliness).
Throughout the poem, Coleridge uses the moon negatively and the sun positively. This is the complete opposite of the traditional romantic idea of the moon as pure. It is unclear why he makes this switch, perhaps to create a new and a mysterious world or to emphasize the dramatic irony (with this irony) of Khans futile attempt at the construction of a pleasure dome in this place, but what is clear, through the other images in the poem, is that he has made it. Knowing this, and knowing the double meaning of the word rills (in addition to the meaning of a small brook, it also means a long narrow straight valley on the moons surface) one can understand the complexity of the image of the gardens bright with sinuous rills.
In the gardens, there is something impure (the moons valleys, as the moon is used negatively in Kubla Khan), out of place (the moon has no place in a garden), and out of its accepted norm (describing them as bright and sinuous is strange given the moons association with night and darkness as well as the fact that rills are defined as straight).
This idea of a garden with impurity is an allusion to the snake in the Garden of Eden, or a paradise that has been contaminated with vileness. This reflects onto Khans materialistic pleasure dome as the snake that brings the downfall of humanitys possibility of paradise, or the cause of the destruction of this near-paradise. The double meaning of the word incense in the image of the incense-bearing tree is also criticizing Khans walls and towers as it both creates both a pleasurable sensory experience (incense as an aromatic substance, adds an olfactory experience to the visual description of the setting) and shows natures disapproval of Khans intrusion (incense as to cause to be extremely angry).
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Sunlight is shown coming in from the right. The earth, of course, is at the center of the diagram. The moon is shown at 8 key stages during its revolution around the earth. The moon phase name is shown alongside the image. The dotted line from the earth to the moon represents your line of sight when looking at the moon. The large moon image shows what you would see at that point in the cycle. For ...
This disapproval of Khans pleasure dome by nature intensifies the rift between the dome and the place in which it resides, which then, by comparison (as nature has been described so lovingly), vilifies Khan and his dome. The image of the forests ancient as the hills gives an even more mysterious atmosphere to the description as Coleridge again rebels against science, choosing not to define natures age in numbers, instead defining it with more nature. However, despite how significant all these images are, perhaps the most important one is that of Alph, the sacred river.
This images essence is in the allusion to Alpheus, the river-god of Greek mythology. Not only does this emphasize the pagan-like atmosphere of this setting, it also makes it a place of gods, setting up a more subtle allusion later in the poem when a mighty fountain momently [is] forced from that deep romantic chasm which slanted / Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! To understand the allusion in this image, one must know a little about Greek mythology. Alpheus, the river god, fell in love with Arethusa. Arethusa was a Hesperides and the daughter of Nereus. A Hesperides is a nymph that tends to a blissful garden of an unknown location. After Alpheus and Arethusa fell in love, they made their way to Sicily. There, Artemis, the god of both chastity and childbirth, turned Arethusa into a fountain.
This allowed Alpheus to swim underground and mix his water with hers in a sex-like act. The power of this allusion in intensifying Coleridges message is extreme. If the fountain is accepted to be the source of the river, and the river is accepted to be Alpheus and the fountain accepted to be Arethusa, their togetherness is a sexual act. This act intensifies the sexual imagery (metaphorical imagery) of the deep romantic chasm and the mighty fountain forced from the earth after fast thick pants. This sex is not simply sex, it is the sex of a god, and there is no better representation of pure pleasure than the sex of a god. In addition to this, Arethusas status as a Hesperides who tends to a blissful garden emphasizes the eminence of the setting of Khans pleasure dome (as well as connecting it further to the Garden of Eden).
The Research paper on God and Dignity
The researchers would like to dedicate this research paper to those people who have lost their ways and wander in darkness. We hope that even just a little bit, we are able to open your minds and touch your hearts. Always remember that no matter what happens, we will always be there for you and accept you. Acknowledgements The researchers would like to thank and acknowledge these guys and things ...
Xanadu is not merely a place; it is the paradise of gods. The material creation of Khan has no right to reside in such a place. The image of the woman beneath a waning moonwailing for her demon-lover is another reference to the Garden of Eden. The woman is representative of Eve, her demon-lover is representative of the apple (indulgence sin and evil), and her wailing is the human condition to never be satisfied with what one has or has had (the eerie and thus negative depiction of which further criticizes materialistic greed).
This image establishes the moon as negative (something crucial to understand when examining Coleridges other images) and intensifies the idea of this setting as a Garden of Eden-like place and Khans pleasure dome ….
