National Poetry Month: Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, like many of the Romantic poets, was a larger-than-life character.  He's well known for his opium addiction and mental health problems, but he wasn't just some crazy stoned poet.  He was an influential literary critic, a friend to Wordsworth, planner of a failed utopian movement, and more.  I can think of at least three fantasy/sci-fi novels where Coleridge is a character:  The Somnabulist by Jonathan Barnes (featuring ZOMBIE Coleridge), The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (which also includes a brainwashed clone of Lord Byron), and Dirk Gently's Holistic Agency by Douglas Adams.  Most important for our purposes today is Coleridge's identity as a poet.  He was especially adept with the feel of words:  meter, rhyme, alliteration, and all that goes to making a poem fascinating to read out loud or hear, even if you haven't a clue what it means.

My favorite Coleridge poem is probably "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," but its length makes it unwieldy for an LJ post.  "Kubla Khan" is fascinating and considerably shorter.  I love the vivid imagery and the way the meter and alliteration draw you relentlessly onwards like the current of Alph, the sacred underground river.  It's a strange, fragmentary poem. (I chose my LJ icon to commemorate how Coleridge apparently dreamed a much longer version of this poem, but was interrupted before finishing.)  Still, it keeps popping up in literature textbooks for a reason.

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( Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge )

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( video of a dramatic reading )