Kublai Khan 1215-1294, who was Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan 1215-1294, who was Kublai KhanSourceURL: http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/China/KublaiKhan.htmlAuthor: Z Shihab |
Kublai Khan
Rules China 1215-1294
Kublai Khan (1215-1294) was a Mongolian leader who made an impact on China, not only through conquest, but also by ruling successfully. Many of the rulers before him were brutally land-hungry and apathetic to the conquered people; however, Kublai challenged the stereotypes of Mongolian rulers by investing in his newly acquired people and providing the foundations of a grand empire. Unfortunately, after turning from his nomadic heritage and adopting Chinese manners, his Mongolian government failed to remain in control and was eventually overthrown by the Chinese.
Back to "Yuan Dynasty" Chronology
Kublai Khan was the son of Toluia and Sorghaghtani Beki and the grandson of the famous Genghis Khan. Kublai’s mother not only raised him and his three brothers after their father’s death, but was also responsible for reclaiming the throne for her sons after losing it to Toluia’s brother. When the eldest son Mongke gained the throne, Kublai, the next in line, showed his own military strength and was given great responsibilities. After a religious battle between Buddhists and Taoists led to the death of Mongke, Kublai was given the throne. However, Kublaiís younger brother, Arigh Boki, with the help of support of several Mongols, challenged the throne. Kublai won over Boki when he cut off supplies to the southern empire. Kublai was claimed "Great Khan" in the North in 1260. Kublai developed a new type of control by surrounding himself with a variety of religious advisors. He showed tolerance towards the religions of his new subjects and because of his leniency, a relationship formed between him and his people.
Kublai Khan's transformation from conqueror to ruler led to many developments in Chinese culture. Along with providing religious freedom, he created aid agencies, increased the use of postal stations, established paper currency, reorganized and improved roads, and expanded waterways. Under his rule, the winter capitol was moved from Mongolian territory to the Chinese City of Dadu, which is modern day Beijing. He established the summer capitol in Shangdu, which was referred to as Xanadu. In 1275, Marco Polo, a Venetian explorer, visited Xanadu and a relationship of trust was formed between the two. Polo’s reports on Xanadu and China were new to Western Europeans and sparked further interest in eastern world exploration.
The Yuan Dynasty failed, unfortunately, with the death of Kublai Khan due to many factors. Kublai’s decision to move the capitol to Chinese territory and to install his lavish palace at Xanadu offended his Mongolian advisors. He was torn between establishing a stable country and following the traditional nomadic ways of his people. Kublai was eventually synicized and his Mongolian influenced government battled between their ways and the demands of the Chinese. The division in the government and frustrations of the Chinese people were not the only reasons for his downfall. Kublai sought expansionism to appease his frustrated Mongolian advisors and sought after Java and Japan. His attempts failed and cost his government extensive amounts of money. The paper currency he created caused inflation and continual conflicts between disgruntled religious groups arose in the mixed society he fostered. In 1281, the deaths of Kublai’s favorite wife and the throne’s next heir sent him into depression. Consequently, with a declining government in his hands and an ache in his heart, Kublai became an obese drunkard and died at the age of 79. Regardless of Kublai Khan’s demise, the Yuan Dynasty made a lasting impact on China and established the legacy of The Great Khan.
Sources:
China: A Study (Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data; Washington, D.C., 1988) who was Kublai Khan
Encyclopedia of Asian History (Volume 2, Macmillan Publishing Company; New York, 1988) khan dynasty empire
Mongolia: A Study (Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data; Washington D.C., 1991) who is kublai khan
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of China (Cambridge University Press; New York, 1987)
Edited, Researched and Written by:
Kris Duncan
Sarah Johnson
Becky Wells
Kublai Khan - Facts and Summary - HISTORY.comSourceURL: http://www.history.com/topics/kublai-khanAuthor: Z Shihab |
Facts & Summary
Kublai’s civilian achievements are impressive. Assuming the titles of Khaghan (Great Khan) and emperor of China in 1260, he set about consolidating Mongol rule in China. Appreciating the need to ingratiate himself to the Chinese if he was to rule a stable society, he restored central and local government institutions and agencies familiar to the Chinese and reinstated Confucian rituals and ceremonies at court. He shifted his capital from Karakorum, in Mongolia, to Tai-tu (near modern Peking), a signal that he recognized the importance of China to his empire. His attempt to accommodate Chinese culture persuaded many Chinese to act as counselors or to serve in his government.
His peaceful achievements have sometimes overshadowed Kublai’s military expeditions, the most successful of which was the conquest of the Sung dynasty of China. Ever since his accession to the throne, Kublai had recognized that subjugation of the Sung would be invaluable both for Mongol reunification of China after more than three centuries of fragmentation and for access to the great wealth of South China. Yet such an expedition was far more demanding than other earlier Mongol campaigns. The Mongols’ greatest strength, their cavalry, was not suited to South China’s forested and agricultural lands. Horses could uncover little forage, could not traverse the dense underbrush, and found the heat oppressive. Moreover, crossing the Yangtze River to the south and attacking China’s southeast coast required either the development or enlistment of a navy, and the huge and highly populated Chinese cities necessitated advances in siege warfare. Kublai’s forces gradually built ships, recruited Chinese sailors, and lured Chinese naval defectors; they finally laid siege to the important crossroads at Hsiang-yang from 1268 to 1273. The Mongol troops eventually needed to import two Muslim engineers to build mangonels and catapults, which hurled huge boulders on the inhabitants, to overcome resistance. The fall of Hsiang-yang enabled the Mongols to move inexorably toward the Sung capital of Lin-an, which they occupied in 1276. Significantly, the final battle occurred at sea, off the island of Yai-chou, where the last Sung emperor drowned during the engagement (1279).
Other Mongol naval engagements were less successful. In 1274 and 1281, responding to Japan’s unwillingness to accept even a pro forma tributary status, Kublai dispatched two expeditions overseas to pacify the Japanese. In the second expedition, a sizable flotilla transported about 40,000 troops from North China and 100,000 troops from South China. The two detachments converged off the island of Kyushu, but a disastrous typhoon (which the Japanese believed to be a kamikaze or "divine wind") hit the coast. Many of the Mongol vessels sank, and about one-half of the troops perished or were captured. The survivors fled back to China. In 1292, another ill-conceived overseas expedition set forth to subjugate Java. Within a year, Kublai’s forces withdrew, as the semitropical heat, the jungles, and the parasitic and infectious diseases overwhelmed the Mongols, who were accustomed to a cooler climate and the spaciousness of the steppes. Kublai himself died the following year, with the disastrous Java campaign contributing a sour note to the end of his reign.
The Reader’s Companion to Military History. Edited by Robert Cowley and Geoffrey Parker. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Poems | poets.orgSourceURL: https://poets.org/poem/kubla-khan |
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Or a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
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.
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!
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.
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!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
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.
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,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
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,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
This poem is in the public domain.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a leader of the British Romantic movement, was born on October 21, 1772, in Devonshire, England.
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More by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Answer to a Child's Question
Do you ask what the birds say? The Sparrow, the Dove, The Linnet and Thrush say, "I love and I love!" In the winter they're silent—the wind is so strong; What it says, I don't know, but it sings a loud song. But green leaves, and blossoms, and sunny warm weather, And singing, and loving—all come back together. But the Lark is so brimful of gladness and love, The green fields below him, the blue sky above, That he sings, and he sings; and for ever sings he— "I love my Love, and my Love loves me!"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1817
Christabel [excerpt]
Beneath the lamp the lady bowed, And slowly rolled her eyes around; Then drawing in her breath aloud, Like one that shuddered, she unbound The cincture from beneath her breast: Her silken robe, and inner vest, Dropt to her feet, and full in view, Behold! her bosom, and half her side— A sight to dream of, not to tell! O shield her! shield sweet Christabel! Yet Geraldine nor speaks nor stirs; Ah! what a stricken look was hers! Deep from within she seems half-way To lift some weight with sick assay, And eyes the maid and seeks delay; Then suddenly as one defied Collects herself in scorn and pride, And lay down by the Maiden's side!— And in her arms the maid she took, Ah wel-a-day! And with low voice and doleful look These words did say: 'In the touch of this bosom there worketh a spell, Which is lord of thy utterance, Christabel!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1816
This Lime Tree Bower My Prison
Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,
This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost
Beauties and feelings, such as would have been
Most sweet to my remembrance even when age
Had dimm'd mine eyes to blindness! They, meanwhile,
Friends, whom I never more may meet again,
On springy heath, along the hill-top edge,
Wander in gladness, and wind down, perchance,
To that still roaring dell, of which I told;
The roaring dell, o'erwooded, narrow, deep,
And only speckled by the mid-day sun;
Where its slim trunk the ash from rock to rock
Flings arching like a bridge;—that branchless ash,
Unsunn'd and damp, whose few poor yellow leaves
Ne'er tremble in the gale, yet tremble still,
Fann'd by the water-fall! and there my friends
Behold the dark green file of long lank weeds,
That all at once (a most fantastic sight!)
Still nod and drip beneath the dripping edge
Of the blue clay-stone.
Now, my friends emerge
Beneath the wide wide Heaven—and view again
The many-steepled tract magnificent
Of hilly fields and meadows, and the sea,
With some fair bark, perhaps, whose sails light up
The slip of smooth clear blue betwixt two Isles
Of purple shadow! Yes! they wander on
In gladness all; but thou, methinks, most glad,
My gentle-hearted Charles! for thou hast pined
And hunger'd after Nature, many a year,
In the great City pent, winning thy way
With sad yet patient soul, through evil and pain
And strange calamity! Ah! slowly sink
Behind the western ridge, thou glorious Sun!
Shine in the slant beams of the sinking orb,
Ye purple heath-flowers! richlier burn, ye clouds!
Live in the yellow light, ye distant groves!
And kindle, thou blue Ocean! So my friend
Struck with deep joy may stand, as I have stood,
Silent with swimming sense; yea, gazing round
On the wide landscape, gaze till all doth seem
Less gross than bodily; and of such hues
As veil the Almighty Spirit, when yet he makes
Spirits perceive his presence.
A delight
Comes sudden on my heart, and I am glad
As I myself were there! Nor in this bower,
This little lime-tree bower, have I not mark'd
Much that has sooth'd me. Pale beneath the blaze
Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch'd
Some broad and sunny leaf, and lov'd to see
The shadow of the leaf and stem above
Dappling its sunshine! And that walnut-tree
Was richly ting'd, and a deep radiance lay
Full on the ancient ivy, which usurps
Those fronting elms, and now, with blackest mass
Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue
Through the late twilight: and though now the bat
Wheels silent by, and not a swallow twitters,
Yet still the solitary humble-bee
Sings in the bean-flower! Henceforth I shall know
That Nature ne'er deserts the wise and pure;
No plot so narrow, be but Nature there,
No waste so vacant, but may well employ
Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart
Awake to Love and Beauty! and sometimes
'Tis well to be bereft of promis'd good,
That we may lift the soul, and contemplate
With lively joy the joys we cannot share.
My gentle-hearted Charles! when the last rook
Beat its straight path across the dusky air
Homewards, I blest it! deeming its black wing
(Now a dim speck, now vanishing in light)
Had cross'd the mighty Orb's dilated glory,
While thou stood'st gazing; or, when all was still,
Flew creeking o'er thy head, and had a charm
For thee, my gentle-hearted Charles, to whom
No sound is dissonant which tells of Life.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1797
Related Poems
Before the Feast of Shushan
Garden of Shushan!
After Eden, all terrace, pool, and flower recollect thee:
Ye weavers in saffron and haze and Tyrian purple,
Tell yet what range in color wakes the eye;
Sorcerer, release the dreams born here when
Drowsy, shifting palm-shade enspells the brain;
And sound! ye with harp and flute ne'er essay
Before these star-noted birds escaped from paradise awhile to
Stir all dark, and dear, and passionate desire, till mine
Arms go out to be mocked by the softly kissing body of the wind—
Slave, send Vashti to her King!
The fiery wattles of the sun startle into flame
The marbled towers of Shushan:
So at each day's wane, two peers—the one in
Heaven, the other on earth—welcome with their
Splendor the peerless beauty of the Queen.
Cushioned at the Queen's feet and upon her knee
Finding glory for mine head,—still, nearly shamed
Am I, the King, to bend and kiss with sharp
Breath the olive-pink of sandaled toes between;
Or lift me high to the magnet of a gaze, dusky,
Like the pool when but the moon-ray strikes to its depth;
Or closer press to crush a grape 'gainst lips redder
Than the grape, a rose in the night of her hair;
Then—Sharon's Rose in my arms.
And I am hard to force the petals wide;
And you are fast to suffer and be sad.
Is any prophet come to teach a new thing
Now in a more apt time?
Have him 'maze how you say love is sacrament;
How says Vashti, love is both bread and wine;
How to the altar may not come to break and drink,
Hulky flesh nor fleshly spirit!
I, thy lord, like not manna for meat as a Judahn;
I, thy master, drink, and red wine, plenty, and when
I thirst. Eat meat, and full, when I hunger.
I, thy King, teach you and leave you, when I list.
No woman in all Persia sets out strange action
To confuse Persia's lord—
Love is but desire and thy purpose fulfillment;
I, thy King, so say!
Anne Spencer
1922
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Kubla Khan (review) by Elham614 - Everything2.comSourceURL: https://everything2.com/user/Elham614/writeups/Kubla+Khan |
Kubla Khan (review) by Elham614 - Everything2.comSourceURL: https://everything2.com/user/Elham614/writeups/Kubla+Khan |
Kubla Khan (review)
Coleridge's reputation as a poet rests on eight poems written between 1797 to 1802, and most of all on three poems of imaginative power: 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', 'Kubla Khan', and 'Christabel'. These poems deal with supernatural events. Coleridge's poems are considered to be perfect Romantic poems in the sense of growing according to an inner organic law, not something that is composed according to some predetermined scheme. Such poems with supernatural topics are made believable by truth to human nature and feeling of a different kind, by "that willing suspension of disblief for the moment that constitutes poetic faith". John Livingston Lows in his scholarly book 'The Road to Xanadu' has traced the images in The Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan in Coleridge's notebook. He has traced the process in which the images have passed from the poet's conscious to his unconscious mind. Lows concludes that Coleridge's intentions are neither philosophical nor Christian but superstitious and legendary. Coleridge calls Kubla Khan a 'fragment' and 'a vision in a dream' and connects it with opium. But modern scholarship has proved that it is neither 'a fragment', nor the result of taking opium nor 'a vision in a dream'. The poem might have been written after reading 'Purchase's Pilgrimage', but, except for the first few lines, Coleridge's poem cannot be traced to a source. In fact, the poem has no source and Coleridge's remarks do nothing but mislead the reader. Kubla Khan is actually a perfect poem describing the "Poetic Creation"
Kubla Khan begins with exotic names suggesting the quality of 'enchantment'. In fact the Romantic poet looks like an enchanter. Kubla himself looks like a figure of power, mystery and enchantment, though the whole poem makes it clear that Kubla is not a real Romantic poet; he is more Classical than Romantic. Great art in general is a miracle, whether classical or Romantic. 'Dome', in the 2nd line, is the most artistic building; it stands for the palace of art. Kubla did 'decree' the dome. True art does not depend on a premeditated plan and it is not mechanical. Through the power of imagination the poet partakes in the creative act of God. God creates the universe and the poet creates the work of art. The difference between Kubla and Colerige is that Kubla has created a conscious and secure world of art on earth while Colerideg can 'build that dome in air'.
The palace of art is sacred because it is the product of imagination. The 2nd line calls it a 'pleasure dome'. Romantic poetry gives delight with no emphasis on the educational side of literature. Coleridge believes that the combination of pleasure and sacredness is the sign of true art.
The opening lines of Kubla Khan describe an ideal and paradisal landscape watered by a sacred river called Alph. The name of the river is reminiscent of alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet. It is the first, the beginning, suggesting the beginning of the world, the creation. It is also the river of the Muses, the river of imagination. The sacred river of imagination originates from the poet's unconscious mind and runs "Through caverns measureless to man" or the creative process, and falls "Down to a sunless sea." The 'sunless sea' of line 5 or the 'lifeless ocean' of line 28 is the symbol of everyday material existance. Thus the river of imagination loses its motion and is always threatened by the society with conflict and extinction.
Lines 6 to 12 of 'Kubla Khan' describe the palace: the 'fertil ground' refers to the productive mind of the poet. 'Walls and towers' that designate the poet's mind stand for the senses of which the eyes and ears are the towers. 'Bright gardens' watered by 'sinuous rills' are the creative mind of the poet inspired by the water of inspiration. The 'incense-bearing' trees that blossom suggest the creation of poems. The 'forests ancient as the hills' imply that poetry is as old as creation because The Book of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament (1050 B.C.) that talks about the creation of the world, is itself a great work of art, a great poem.
With line 13 Coleridge comes to the process of poetic creation. The 'deep romantic chasm' is the unconscious mind of the poet. It is the source of the river of imagination, the Alph, running in a sacred and enchanted place. The enchanted setting makes poetry look supernatural. The chasm functions as a volcano forcing out the sacred river as well as 'huge fragments' suggesting that poetry is not only 'a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings' but good poetry, like its source the 'romantic chasm', is romantic; that is, wild and natural. The 'mighty fountain' of line 19 is actually 'the sacred river' of line 24, repeated for the sake of emphasis and the significance of imagination in the creation of poetry.
Lines 25 to 30 repeat the process of creation and how it joins the lifeless society that is unpoetic and even anti-poetic. The conflict between poetry and society suggests that poetic imagination is always threatened with conflict and extinction. But lines 30 onward show that poetry overshadows the society that cannot but hear poetry's mingled measure. Poetry dominates the society because it is 'a miracle of rare device'.
From line 37 to the end of the poem (the last 18 lines) Coleridge forgets about Kubla and Xanadu and speaks in his own person. He has the vision of an Abyssinian maid singing of Mount Abora--Milton's Mount Amara, a fabled paradise (paradise Lost, IV, 268-284). Thus the Abyssinian maid is singing of a paradisal landscape more beautiful than that of the opening lines. She becomes somebody like Sarah Hutchinson, the poet's source of inspiration. Here and in another poem "Dejection" Coleridge emphasizes the need for 'delight' or 'joy' as the first step in poetic ecstasy. When inspired and joyful, he flies beyond the reach of Kubla or any classical poet who builds the palace of art on earth. The Romantic poet can 'build that dome in air.' In the mood of poetic ecstasy, the poet is in his poetic paradise, and he is the inspired magical prophet-bard.
Source:
Segments of notes taken during lectures of Dr Amrolah Abjadian, professor of English literature in Shiraz University Iran.
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Kubla Khan (idea)
"Kubla Khan" is quite possibly one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's most famous poems of his career. Aside from captivating readers for several years, it has both stunned and astounded scholars and critics alike. It is an unfinished poem, like most of Coleridge's poems, and a poem that seems to have no literal meaning on first glance, yet many theoretical meanings can be perceived from repeated readings. This writeup will attempt to highlight just what exactly has cause so much time and effort to go into deciphering what, upon first glance, sounds like the ridiculous ravings of a madman.
The first logical place to start would be to examine the layered symbolism within the poem itself. As one critic states, "Coleridge was 'thinking of himself in terms of the serene and powerful Kubla.' The pleasure-dome is the bower into which Coleridge retired by means of opium. But this retreat is not perfectly secure, for there were the prophecies of war. These Mr. Graves suggests may have been, on one plane of symbolism, Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd prophesying an evil fate for the drug taker; on another they were 'probably' the actual threat to England from the war with France, under which 'it was hardly the duty of an Englishman, even a genius, to bury himself far off in the West Country and weaken his spirit with opium"(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 239). Coleridge, waking from an opium induced dream, awoke a began writing the poem from what he could still retain in his memory. It is strange to think that any intentional literal meaning could have stemmed from such an accidental meeting of pen and paper. Another critical opinion of the poem says that "The poem shows us that 'Coleridge has determined to shun the mazy complications of life by retreating to a bower of poetry, solitude, and opium.' The Abyssinian maid is an unidentified beloved who usually lay beside him in his opium dream. The caves of ice may represent the purely intellectual character of the poet's attachment to Dorothy Wordsworth"(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 239). Some theories state that the meaning behind the symbolism in Kubla Khan is much more personal than it may at first seem. This is not the first of Coleridge's poems to contain mention of the "Abyssinian maid". Finally, one more example of Coleridge's imagery being examined is when the critic says "The figure with 'flashing eyes' and 'floating hair' in the final lines Lowes traced to a confluence of Bruce's king of Abyssinia, whose hair on one occasion floated, and the 'youths' who were followers of Aloadin—an impersonal mysterious figure beheld by Coleridge in his dreams"(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 245). The symbolism Coleridge uses in this poem is incredibly deep, and seems to be, for the most part, pulled directly from is opium dreams.
The second factor about this poem that has attracted so much attention is the fact that it forever remains uncompleted, as the idea was lost by Coleridge. One critic states "However much of little of a plan Coleridge may have had, the fragment as it stands perhaps carries within itself the seeds of its own early collapse. The author could hardly sustain it, one feels, and if he could the reader could not"(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 252). The very beginning of this poem is so detailed and in depth that if it had been the staggering work that Coleridge claimed it would have been in its finished form, if he did manage to write such a poem, the reader would almost certainly be lost in the details. Another opinion of the poem in its unfinished form is when a critic states "A narrative poet almost of necessity lets the reader into his tale more thinly, with his matter spaced more widely; or if the opening texture is extremely rich the pace will be slower, more leisurely or more dignified, as in Paradise Lost and Lycidas. The movement of Kubla Khan is rather swift, yet its texture is fully as elaborate as that of Lycidas, without the retarding gravity and the uncrowded, fully explored imagery with which the poem opens"(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 252). To have a longer poem the author must reveal the details slowly, so that the poem can continue. If Coleridge could have finished this poem, it may have destroyed itself by complicating the story line with an overexertion of imagery. Finally, the critic states "I question whether Coleridge or any poet could have continued it without producing either anticlimax or surfeit. It is impertinent, however, to suggest what a poet could or could not do; and it is idle anyhow to worry the question of whether Kubla Khan is unfinishable or merely unfinished"(Coleridge, Opium, and Kubla Khan, page 252). The poem, whether it is possible that it could have been completed or not, in reality is not. It should be looked at and examined as a fragment, though not necessarily a bad thing as Coleridge's career revolved around many unfinished poems.
A final characteristic of "Kubla Khan" is the musical tone that the poem follows. For example, one critic points out that "The pattern of Kubla Khan, however, is not confined to the æ-sounds. The rhyme, with all its freedom, its shiftings and Lycidas-like "oscillations," has elaborate hidden correspondences. The rhyme scheme of the opening seven lines, for example, is exactly repeated in the first seven lines of the second paragraph. The extraordinary elaboration, also, of the assonance keeps the music of this poem fresh through many re-readings"(Kubla Khan, page 88). The poetic style that Coleridge uses throughout "Kubla Khan" keeps the reader from getting bored and the poem becoming redundant. Also, the critic continues, "The most obvious of the patterns in the opening lines, apart from the ubiquity of the æ-sounds, is the alliteration that closes each of the first five lines: "Kubla Khan," "dome decree," "river ran," "measureless to man," "sunless sea"---a revival of the device Coleridge had practiced so conspicuously in his Spenserian-Miltonic verse of 1795"(Kubla Khan, page 89). "Kubla Khan" signified the recurrence of a writing style that Coleridge had practiced well. A writing style that also helped to, in a sense, characterize "Kubla Khan." A final critical analysis of Coleridge's writing style is stated "This device, used skillfully as it is here and partly concealed by the interlacing of other patterns, contributes to something to the floating effect of the whole, for the assonance softens the impact of the rhyme and so lessens its tendency to bring the line to earth at the close: the terminal rhyme does not settle so heavily upon the mind when its emphasis has been partly stolen by its preceding shadow"(Kubla Khan, page 90). The musical attributes found within the poem, creatively mixed with other types of interlacing patterns, help to give "Kubla Khan" a little bit of its longevity.
Many attributes have made "Kubla Khan" a long time favorite among scholars and poetry enthusiasts alike. The fact that it remains unfinished seems little more than another alley to explore, and has led to many speculations about what Coleridge was trying to convey and what direction he could have been heading with the poem. Both the musical style and the layered imagery also help with it's popularity, and have led to many speculations of the true meaning of the poem, and what the illustrations represent. Although criticized by many as nothing more than the incomprehensible ramblings of an opium addict, it is hard to deny that Coleridge knew what he was doing when he began writing "Kubla Khan", and did it very well.
Sources:
- "Opium, Coleridge, and Kubla Khan": Published in Textbook Binding
by Octagon
Books (May, 1983). Author: Elisabeth Schneider
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