During the Romantic Era, the imagination was one of several focal points common to all Romantic writers. But just what is the imagination, exactly? To some, it is our ability to create in our minds what does not exist. It allows us the see what cannot be seen only conceived in the mind’s eye. For the Romantic writers, the definition that best served their purposes was that the imagination “enables humans to reconcile differences and opposites in the world of appearances.” Samuel T. Coleridge called it “intellectual intuition.”
Samuel T. Coleridge’s well known poem, “Kubla Khan” is a prime example of how important the imagination was the Romantic writers and to their work. The entire poem is based on a vision Coleridge had during an opium trance. After he awoke from his drugged state, he began to write down what he had seen. He was interrupted and forgot the vision before he could write all of it down. The poem is a reflection of the vision, and of his desire to remember the supposed two to three hundred lines of poetry he meant to write down. This is readily seen in the following lines:
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision I once 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 deep delight ‘twould win me
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome within the air!
The lines, “A damsel with a dulcimer/ In a vision I once saw” refer directly to Coleridge’s opium-influenced dream. The song of Mount Abora, “And on her dulcimer she played/ Singing of Mount Abora” also refer to the vision whereas “Could I revive within me/ her symphony and song” imply Coleridge’s desire to remember the vision so that “[he] [c]ould build that dome within the air.”
It is in the fifth and final stanza of the poem in which Coleridge changes his haunting and dreamlike tone to wistful longing and makes clear his intentions. For the Romantic writers, the imagination brought together the real and unreal, as part of the synthesis of thesis and antithesis, to create what cannot be seen. By writing down what he saw in his hallucination, Coleridge would have solidified the pleasure dome of ice caves. This would have created a physical, geographical location for us to experience in our own minds. Had he been able to remember the topographical details, he could have shared this “miraculous” place with us, his readers.
This idea that the imagination creates for us what cannot exist is the main idea of Coleridge’s message. As one of the “fathers’’ of Romanticism, Coleridge emphasized this belief that imagination was as important if not more important than reason, what had previously been so highly valued in the Enlightenment period. The Romantic idea was to lead with feelings and senses rather than reason; to live through the imagination rather than reality. In “Kubla Khan,” Coleridge pushes this belief to the extremes much like any other Romantic writers did with their ideas. Living and thinking in the extremes was characteristic of Romanticism. As a way to reach an extreme’s fullest potential, many writers used alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs to reach the heights of an emotion not readily attainable in a sober state. This is why “Kubla Khan” is so full of fantastical ideas. The lines
And all who heard should see theme there
And all should cry: “Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair
Weave a circle around him thrice
And close your eyes in holy dread:
For he on honeydew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise!”
I feel also relate to Coleridge’s drug use. These lines can loosely interpreted as Coleridge’s vision would have been so great and strange that people might have seen him as a wizard or a person of dark magic. They also might have thought he was crazy, not unlike many people think that Lewis Carroll, another opium addict, was crazy, too. This comes from the mention of weaving of a circle around him and the flashing eyes and floating hair. The implication of drug use might come from “For on honeydew he hath fed/ And drunk the milk of Paradise!” Paradise could mean the “high” from the opium.
In summary, Coleridge’s point, besides lamenting over his failing to remember this miraculous vision, is to stress the role and significance of the imagination for an individual and the consequences it holds for society. If we can share all of what our imagination has to offer with society, society can benefit. It can expose the world to another alternate universe where chaos is order and order does not exist, nothing is what we expect and the impossible is more than just conceivable, it is achievable.
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