Imagination

In reading Kubla Khan the first thing that came to mind was my favorite band: The Beatles. This entire poem seems like Coleridge's personal magical mystery tour.

Further research indicates that this poem's author claims that it was written in an opium-induced stupor. Well that certainly explains some of the imagery that Coleridge conjures up in these lines.

I want to focus on the imaginative aspects of this poem. From the beginning, Coleridge describes this glorious place of wonder and beauty, using especially descriptive language to do so ("gardens bright with sinuous rills", "enfolding sunny spots of greenery"). This rich, evocative language helps the reader to try and visualize the types of things that were going on in the mind of Coleridge while his mind wandered off into another world. To be frank, though, I had a hard time really visualizing what he was describing.

That other aspect I want to discuss briefly is this "pleasure dome." While the majority of the descriptive language is in reference to natural components of nature such as rivers or trees, the pleasure dome receives similar adoration. It is interesting that the author chose to juxtapose the traditional "nature" with what is ostensibly a human artifice but still treat them as one in the same. It is as though the profound meaning of this drug-induced dream is that while human creation may clash at first with the true nature, over time they can become one in the same.

Only Nature Can Save Us

In my blog this week I want to discuss the religious underpinnings of Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight."

From the very beginning we have a religious references where the frost, "performs its secret ministry." Although the Oxford English Dictionary could not offer much more than, "a house under the rule of a minister," the more I think about it the more it fits. The minister, of course, is God, and the house is this romanticized nature that Coleridge discusses, yearning for his child to experience it. Although it is not an outrageous idea to see God in everything, especially nature, it seems that is the overall goal of the author in composing this poem. In this case, the frost is something that serves God as natural "clergy."

In another sense, frost can be seen as the breathe of God and the voice of the Owl the voice. As the text states, "himself in all, and all things in himself." And taking this one step further, just as God breathes into and is embedded throughout nature, so too does he breathe into humans, and is therefore embedded in us. That is, at least, part of the message that Coleridge is trying to convey: that there is a Godliness in everything. As such, we must treat nature with a certain admiration and respect.

Really, this is a strong basis for environmentalists who want to preserve nature as is.

Yew Tree

The picture on the right is of an old Yew tree that has had many many years to grow. In my first reading of the Lines Left Upon A Seat in a Yew-Tree I had a difficult time understanding how the Yew tree fit into the narrative of the poem. After a Google search yielded the photo to the right, I took a new perspective to the poem and the role of that tree.

The message that Wordsworth trying to convey in these lines is somewhat cryptic. It is very clear, however, that a major separation occurs in line 8, if the large dash that begins the line was not obvious enough. The first eight lines of the poem describe this Yew Tree and its positive influence on a person, namely, that it: "lull[s] the mind." The subsequent fifty-two lines, on the other hand, discuss how our main character actually responds to the tree and natural surroundings. The overriding message Wordsworth makes is that while the tree (and nature's) beauty should relax this traveler and help him to clear his mind, it fails to do so. Why? Because he is a man of "lofty views and morbid pleasures" and therefore he cannot see the true, raw beauty the tree exhibits.

I see the tree as almost a God-like figure. Whereas most people probably use this natural giant as a way to take cover from a scorching sun, it has a different impact on our main character. Instead of covering up the traveler, it in fact exposes him. The tree is able to dig past the facades and superficialites this character's lives has been marked by and cuts directly to the core. That gentleman saw his Judgment Day under the shade of that omnipotent tree. Taking it one step further, I believe that Wordsworth is trying to show that God is omnipresent in any and everything, and we must appreciate every facet of the natural world, for to not to do so could lull your mind - and not in a good way.