Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 1834 English lyrical poet

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

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

Coleridge’s farm-house Coleridge's note • The following fragment is here published the Porlockat. Bay request of a 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:

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

• 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

Stanza 1 an introduction - the ruler, the place, the decree • In Xanadu did Kubla Khan = the A stately pleasure-dome decree. Alpheus : classical Where Alph, the sacred river, ran underground river Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. The Latin origin of the word sacred has 2 meanings: sacer caverns (caves etc. ) of = 'holy' or 'connected with a measureless, "superhuman" god of the underworld'; the The river‘s final destination is dimensions, i. e. of expanses surroundings a place of extreme darkness of the river which man (human skill or the perhaps and indefinite depth (downsuit to the second powers of the human mind) is a sunless sea). meaning best: at least a not able to "fathom" both in a http: //englishromantics. com/kublakhan/inde

fulfilment of the Stanza 1 (conti. ) decree • 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 incensebearing tree ; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Amidst [ancient] hills, spots shelter is offered by landscape ancient A vivid picture of the Enfolding sunny of greenery. Natural conditions and sunny the results ofi. e. artificial forests which encompass spots, is given here: twice five miles of shaping seemand to connect tobyanthe ideal kind of to clearings lighted warmed sun (appeal ground areprovides reserved for the environment: fertile ground an ideal visual and tactile perception) which can serve as "project". The area is girdled basisfor forsport, cultivation of various kinds, ofe. g. of a spaces play(surrounded, etc. A spectrum colours confined) by walls park-like area: here were gardens bright with can be associated with the words bright, and towers. sinuous (various rills; the appeal the eye is matched blossomed colours; toeternal spring? ),

• 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 Comparison In aone mere five(as lines, . . . as) Coleridge of the place evokes with a arush haunted of First, a climactically arranged sequence of On peculiar green hill a chasm , i. e. , haunted place, here with encompassing a place visited such disparate bysubjects aon the adjectives casts mysterious orfrequently sinister light aimpressions deep crack, crevice etc. , runs By woman wailing for her demon-lover woman, as sex, nature, or a woman's and religion. spirit, Unable "qualifies" to integrate it as a ! this place: the chasm deep (enhancing downward through, isor across, a thicketthe of meaning cursed apposition place of imagery and makes it s. a. ) an. . . ; ideal setting conscious of the trees word chasm proper; , the romantic cedar (slanted [/] rationally, down athwart. . . for a scene gives of "forbidden wayconnected to the longing or beautiful, mourning" process (wailing), of (associations: and wild, "mind = across, especially insubconscious a with sloping and association, forbidden thus love leaving between thehumans reader andlove ademonic series landscape, adventure, danger, mystery, etc. ; of direction" ; note multiple meaning andwith powers fantastic (the andwords) woman mysterious +=demon-lover). impressions Classically, that are cf. following and savage (naturally wild, felt connotations of cover thicket: roof,

• 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, With the source help of of illustrative comparisons, aflail: Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's aps, The Alph is the this eruption. A complex sacred river throws itself uperuption violently (flung up)to Comparisons with familiar phenomena serve graphic description of an is given: The magma etc. breaks forth with very great And 'mid these picture: dancing rocks at once and at e illustrates the phenomenon: this earth shows traits of amidst these dancing rocks. Its eruption takes place create a graphic The rocks are likened Fromat this chasm. . . A mighty fountain [is]with to speed, short intervals, or continuously, fering human or god(dess), breathing. . . inhit fast thick ever once, i. e. either simultaneously, or suddenly; the 1 st rebounding hail, the grains of which the forced, i. e. driven out of the ground(swift by halfincreasing and decreasing intensity s, i. e. fighting for breath etc. , and, finally, upwith meaning would rather suggest that Alph bringing is identical Itground, flung up momently the sacred river. bounce off, and fall again; Chaffy grain geological or supernatural forces, burst); among this matter hugeterms: theintermitted assuming a new form and quality, and is ause offountain, the trouble (cf. phlegm; in supernatural behaves in a similar way when, in order to momently, i. e. enormous at that moment, or at fragments, i. e. boulders of rock, orthat to erupt; the 2 nd meaning would imply vil). continuing separate the chaff fromand the usable grain, wheat intervals. The gigantic powerful lumps of magma, are to hurled into the air (vault = this eruption is additional that of the fountain, and etc. is beaten beneath the thresher's flail, a stick ejection of water is seething with endless

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 : Amid this tumult, Kubla perceives Ancestral And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from voices, i. e. the voices of (wise) forefathers, or far those of religious prophets etc. They come from Ancestral voices prophesying war ! etc. ), far (figurative meaning: from heaven Stanza 2 announcing the event of war, which implies the (conti. ) of the pleasure-dome etc. and loss destruction

Repeating the contrasting images of the sunny pleasure-dome (connotations: warmth, brightness etc. ) and the caves of ice (= caverns, s. a. ; • The shadow the dome ofthe pleasure connotations: cold, ofdarkness etc. ) speaker gives his evaluation of the phenomenon depicted in the Floated midway on the waves ; preceding termsthe it as a miracle, i. e. an Wherelines; washe heard mingled measure unexpected event of a supernatural kind, at the From the fountain and the caves. same time, as based upon a very peculiar kind of It was a miracle of rare device, design or plan (of rare device). Here one finds oneself on the "dark" side of the pleasure- Stanza 3 A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of dome which 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

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 post-interruption. • 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

Deeply impressed, the speaker voices a Stanza 4 complex wish, the first The imagination of this scenepart would give him, or of which explicitly • gain A damsel withintensive, a dulcimerprofound pleasure. The him, very refers to the vision itself Incontrast a vision once I saw : In to Kubla's palace etc. andemotional particular speaker is not only conscious of the which he would like to It was of anofthe Abyssinian maid, features the landscape of this Xanadu, thatof(sunny) impact vision (the delight) but also The process of "building" paradise-like place reproduce andthe re. And on her dulcimer she played, dome and those caves of ice would be built inthis air, be potential inspirational powers connected with would, according to the speaker's imagination, experience in his mind. Singing of an Mount Abora. i. e. be founded on an immaterial basis delight: as "imaginative potential" it is and the quality accompanied by music (cf. the nature Could I revive withinasky me (associations: "lofty" or heaven asof opposed The speaker recalls vision, i. e. a beautiful sightto essential prerequisite to the fulfilment another of the damsel's music; s. a. ; celestial music, Her of symphony and song, "low" earth, thethe versus the heavy element, and/or a dreamlike experience, which, however, part his wish -light his own building or designing ofis harmony of spheres) loud and long, i. e. of aa To restricted suchbrightness a deep delight 'twould over-all versus (partial) darkness; the not to visual impressions: a damsel, or paradise-like place. great intensity and extensive (eternal? ) duration. win me, poetic genius' immaterial, indestructible paradise maid, from Abyssinia (location of "Eden"), sings of That with loud and long, doomed versus the music commanding genius' Mount Abora (high place, mountain of theparadise Gods build that dome air, where "Abassin", i. e. of. I would material gigantomania, etc. ). etc. ; "Mount Amara", the in place That sunnyprinces dome !were thosereared). caves She accompanies Abyssinian

The speaker of the reader or listener The speaker's imagination leaves thiswith place open In The contrast second toact Kubla, isdemands to the close "commanding your eyes to perform of great or been awe etc. to all who i. e. awe everybody who able Stanza genius", holy dread, heheard, appears i. e. 4 acts with to betowards thereverence legitimate, a has towards this figure: firstrepresented act, which reminds or willing to perceive thethe music the poem; he "absolute superhuman genius" being. in The command figure ofor "Paradise of words symbolic gestures performed during wishes (should. . . ) or or invites them to use regained", by the i. e. his a god and heaisfigure characterised entitled totheir by a own religious or magic conjuration or incantation, is imagination see them[selves] there. the flashing rights eyes of aand which god, God might thehave Almighty, a blinding etc. The toon Weave a circle him thrice reaction he expects ofround them (. . . all should cry, a The effect figure humans, could theoretically floating hair, bei. e. identical hair (Weave circle; here: to a who, circle by symbolic Beware!. . . ), cries warning, fear, awe etc. , is with moving the in speaker the wind ofofdescribe or the storm poem, (cf. pictorial gestures). directed towards dominating figure of the last inspired representations by the muses ofthe ancient (the gods), damsel), andwould finally, • the And all poem. who heard should see them part of the have by attained assumption the status that He of on a "poetic honey-dew there, genius" [has] fedin[/]command And drunk ofthe a paradise milk of Paradise, of And all should cry, Beware ! Beware imagination, i. e. has beeni. e. entitled the realm to share of thepoet's privileges ! inspiration; of gods (cf. in thethis ancient case, gods' the last consuming four lines His flashing eyes, his floating hair ! would ambrosia rather andbe nectar). uttered by all than by the Weave a circle round him thrice, speaker himself. And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed,

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

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,

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

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