MOST EXPECTED QUESTIONS
Q:
DISCUSS S.T. COLERIDGE’S POETIC ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE PRESCRIBED PIECES OF POETRY.
Q:
COLERIDGE IS MYSTERIOUS IN HIS VISION OF THE WORLD,
ELABORATE.
Ans:
S.T. Coleridge falls in the category of primorolial romantic poets and is turned over in our mind to be an autochthon of the Romantic Age. When William Wordsworth jotted down the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”, Coleridge lent him a helping hand in composing the volume. In the point of fact, S.T. Coleridge, rather than a starry-eyed poet, was a philosophical poet. Coleridge was blessed with scintillating wit and ripened wisdom among the Romantic poets. In the throes of his contemporaries, romanticism tends to take a single domineering hue, whereas, in Coleridge’s poetry, it captures all the darker and brighter aspects of life as well as attains the accomplishment of convolution.
In Coleridge’s poetry, there is leeway for the spirit of undoubting adventure, the felicity of lucky strike and the romance for action. There is glamour of the untrammeled regions which are replete with wondrous and eerie elements. Coleridge’s poetry is overwhelmed by instinctive depiction in a variety of moods and possesses a familiarity and comfort. It is also bizarre and spine-chilling, tender and smoothing, desolating as well as heavy-hearted. S.T. Coleridge unlike most of the others, counts the gift of telling an account pregnant in dramaturgic ins and outs in his possessions.
The sum and substance of Romanticism lies in his artistic treatment of the supernatural. His poems “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of Ancient Mariner” are rich in unblemished supernaturalism. His outlook about supernatural things is never vitiation on our blind faith. In lieu of abruptly, steeping into the realms of supernatural, firstly he conquers the faith of his readers with the various rendering of the common garden landscape and then, by and by, proceeds to turn his faith to account and leads the supernatural elements into commence.
Medievalism is also an eminent feature of Coleridge’s poetry, as the people of Middle Ages had faith in sorcery and witchcraft as well as superstitions. The word “Ancient” in the introductory lines of “The Ancient Mariner” not only refers to the old age of the mariner but also portrays the ancient times. In this poem, the citation to the “Cross bow”, “The Vesper” be the “Shriving Hermit” and the “Prayer to Mary Queen” makes us remember of the Middle Ages. In fact, most of his poems instill the medieval atmosphere. Sue enticement for the past which Coleridge shares with Keats, Byron and especially Waller Scott, at once, sets him apart as a romantic poet.
A suggestion has been put forward that Coleridge’s dream faculty lay at the root of his luster and nobility as a poet and his puniness as a man. Coleridge is indeed first and the Classic Don Quixote in English verse. “Kubla Khan” is the first rate visionary poem by Coleridge which exhibits a phantasmagorical atmosphere. In the “Ancient Mariner” several dreams give the poem its real logic. Thus, visionary degree of excellence of his poetry also contributes to his Romanticism.
Like all romantic poets, Coleridge too had a great attachment to the nature. At the outset of his career, he was enormously inspired by Wordsworth. His “Frost at Midnight” is typically Wordsworthian in spirit as well as in expression. Coleridge is of the view that the fillips we get from nature do not have any distinct existence from our own. According to Coleridge, nature comes tickled pink into view but according to our inner weather, it is
lugubrious which manifests his Romanticism. This view of the nature is embodied in his last mind blowing poem “Dejection: An Ode”;
“O Lady! We receive but what we give.
And in our life alone does nature liv,
Ours is her wedding garment, ours her shroud.”
The creative power is also the most acclaimed trait of Coleridge’s romantic poetry. His poetry brings the deftness of mental images to light which are superbly controlled by an infallible artistic sense. He also sets him apart from others by distinguishing between fancy and imagination. Coleridge wished poetry to be reined by the parameters of imaginations and not by those of fancy.
Coleridge shares with other romantic and idealistic poets, a deep rooted hankering for music. That’s why, he is also contemplated as one of the most dulcet and lyrical poet in English poetry. In concern with, H.D. Traill says:
“Coleridge is always a singer, as Wordsworth is not and Byron almost never.”
Coleridge’s mellifluous genius can best be sensed in such poems as “The Ancient Mariner”, “The Kubla Khan” and “Youth and Age” etc. so, consequently, it shows his appetizing tendency towards Romanticism. In reference to “Kubla Khan” he puts into words that “With music loud and long, he could build Kubla Khan’s pleasure dome in the air”.
“The Ancient Mariner” aptly illustrates the maestro spell of Coleridge’s music,
“The Fair breeze blew the white foam flew:
The furrow followed free,
we were the first that ever burst into that silent sea.”
To summarize our discussion about Coleridge’s Romanticism, we can sanguinely wind up that his poetry is the most supreme assimilation of all that is the most ethereal and flawless in the Romantic poetry.
Q:
DISCUSS COLERIDGE AS A VISIONARY POET.
Q:
DISCUSS COLERIDGE’S POWER OF DREAMS.
Ans:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a greatest visionary poet indeed among all the romantics. The hours that he spent in visions were more important than his waking hours, for his creative faculties were more wake when he was lost in dreams or visions. In fact, he fed on his visions and vitalised them in his poetry. All his important poems have vision like movement. Escapism is a common trait of all the romantics. To escape the cruel realities of the world, almost all the romantic poets used to be lost in future, childhood or fantasies or visions. Coleridge’s visionary knack seems to behave like an offshoot of his escapism but it touches the depth of mind and heart.
Coleridge, when creates poetry is deeply lost in visions and then fertilizes them in something concrete. It has been suggested that Coleridge’s visionary faculty lies at the root of his greatness as a poet and his weakness as a man. He is indeed the first and finest dreamer in English verse. In his visions he visits the untraveled, unseen and far off regions with the element of marvel and mystery that is glamour of his poetry.
Coleridge is said to have an unusual gift of imagination and most vigorous mind among all the romantic poets. Coleridge’s major works mostly have the quality of dreaming or visionary atmosphere. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” shares many characteristics of a vision. To begin with, even the inspiration to write came from a dream.
A friend of Coleridge had dreamt about ‘a skeleton ship with figures in it’. This dream caught Coleridge’s fancy and later when he planned “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner”, he decided to make it the basis of the poem. His dreaming ability is so strong that he comes across visions into visions. The whole drama on the ship occurs in visionary state.
Coleridge’s dreams are life like and real as he says in “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner”.
“The silly bucket on the deck.
That had so long remained.
I dreamt that they were filled with dew;
And when I awoke it rained.”
In his dream, even a life like reality has been described. In the whole prime a life like dream has been presented. In reality one goes on a voyage, one has one’s companions in some adventure, one must repent on sins and trust of offer sacrifices etc. If we analyse “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner” in the light of the Characteristics of a dream or vision we find unmistakable signs of a visionary movement in it.
In Coleridge’s vision we find remoteness in its full glory that is the most distinguished of Coleridge’s visionary poetry. In “Kubla Khan” Coleridge proves himself a visionary poet more convincingly. “Kubla Khan” is itself a result of Coleridge’s dream when one day he falls asleep in his chair, while at that time he is busy in reading “Purchase Pilgrimage”. On awakening he writes the lines of “Kubla Khan”. So “Kubla Khan” is an opus more than a physiological curiosity.
Kubla Khan the great oriental king ordered that pleasure-dome should be built for him in Xanadu where the sacred river alpha runs through the caves which are measureless to man. The very opening word “Xanadu” gives us a sense of remoteness in time and place or space. Coleridge uses his sense of remoteness and his remoteness gives his poetry a marvellous visionary greatness. In fact, his remoteness is vision and his visions are remoteness.
Another facet of his far-sighted nature is still remained to be discussed that is his mysterious outlook. Coleridge’s visions towards life are thoroughly mysterious and full of horror. “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner” is subterranean, atrocious and dream like visionary rhyme.
We find in this two spirits talking each other, triumph of death over life, re- emerging of the dead man, recklessly shooting the Albatross, then it is hung around the Mariner’s neck etc. the entire atmosphere of the rhyme is highly startling and terrifying.
In “Kubla Khan” there is also mysterious vision that is vitality of the poem. “Kubla Khan” in his palace hears the voices of his ancestors. The setting of the palace is also appears to us a blend of natural and supernatural elements. Coleridge’s exercise of diction in “Kubla Khan” is visionary, matchless and mysterious as he uses romantic chasm, holy and enchanted and warring moon all are remarkable.
Lastly, Coleridge’s vision has life like class, mystery, sense of remoteness, are near to nature. They act as an enlivened blend of natural and supernatural elements. His works enjoy all the superb elements that enable him to be a visionary poet of high esteem.
Q: NO SINGLE INTERPRETATION WILL EVER RESOLVE THE COMPLEXITIES OF SO PROTEAN A PRODUCT OF THE HUMAN IMAGINATION, SAYS LIVINGSTONE ABOUT KUBLA KHAN. WHAT IS SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STATEMENT?
Q: KUBLA KHAN IS SO PROVOKINGLY ENIGMATIC AND SO DELICIOUSLY SUGGESTIVE, COMMENT.
Q: WHY KUBLA KHAN IS SO CONFUSING?
Q: KUBLA KHAN IS THE STUDY OF POET’S MIND THAT IS MYSTERIOUS ONE.
Q: GIVE POSSIBLE INTERPRETATIONS OF KUBLA KHAN.
Ans:
If a man could pass thro' Paradise in a Dream, & have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his Soul had really been there, & found that flower in his hand when he awoke -- Aye! And what then? Kubla Khan is a fascinating and exasperating poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Almost everyone, who has read it, has been charmed by its magic. It must surely be true that no poem of comparable length in English or any other language has been the subject of so much critical commentary. Its fifty-four lines have spawned thousands of pages of discussion and analysis. Kubla Khan is the sole or a major subject in five book-length studies; close to 150 articles and book- chapters have been devoted exclusively to it; and brief notes and incidental comments on it are without number.
Despite this deluge, however, there is no critical unanimity and very little agreement on a number of important issues connected with the poem: its date of composition, its meaning, its sources in Coleridge's reading and observation of nature, its structural integrity (i.e. fragment versus complete poem), and its relationship to the Preface by which Coleridge introduced it on its first publication in 1816. Coleridge's philosophical explorations appear in his greatest poems. 'Kubla Khan', with its exotic imagery and symbols, rich vocabulary and rhythms, written, by Coleridge's account, under the influence of laudanum, was often considered a brilliant work, but without any defined theme. However, despite its complexity the poem can be read as a well- constructed exposition on human genius and art.
Throughout the nineteenth century and during the first quarter of the twentieth century Kubla Khan was considered, almost universally, to be a poem in which sound overwhelms sense. With a few exceptions (such as Lamb and Leigh Hunt), Romantic critics -- accustomed to poetry of statement and antipathetic to any notion of ars gratia artis -- summarily dismissed Kubla Khan as a meaningless farrago of sonorous phrases beneath the notice of serious criticism. It only demonstrated, according to William Hazlitt, that Mr. Coleridge can write better nonsense verses than any man in England -- and then he added, politically, it is not a poem, but a musical composition.
For Victorian and Early Modern readers, on the other hand, Kubla Khan was a poem not below but beyond the reach of criticism, and they adopted (without the irony) Hazlitt's perception that it must properly be appreciated as verbalised music. When it has been said, wrote Swinburne of Kubla Khan, that such melodies were never heard, such dreams never dreamed, such speech never spoken, the chief thing remains unsaid, and unspeakable. There is a charm upon this poem, which can only be felt in silent submission of wonder. Even John Livingston Lowes -- culpable, if ever anyone has been, of murdering to dissect -- insisted on the elusive magic of Coleridge's dream vision: For Kubla Khan is as near enchantment, as we are like to come in this dull world. While one may track or attempt to track individual images to their sources, Kubla Khan as a whole remains utterly inexplicable -- a dissolving phantasmagoria of highly charged images whose streaming pageant is, in the final analysis, as aimless as it is magnificent.