coleridge and the third eye
TRANSCRIPT
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Coleridge and the Third Eye in Kubla Khan
The Third Eye is a concept describing an inner part of the brain that
reaches a higher consciousness, and is manifested substantially in the poem
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge is renowned for his
works being opium-induced, pipe dreams, they are called. Opium is a
hallucinogen, and hallucinogens are known to be compared to opening up
the third eye. The third eye was a portal to visions, and the hallucination
given by opium is like a vision. The third eye was significant during the
Romantic Period from both a philosophical perspective and a historical
perspective. Historically, during the time that this was written, somewhere
between 1797 and 1816, opium was rapidly increasing in its yields and
becoming an immensely popular drug. Philosophically, the effects of opium
are an aesthetic experience that induces intangible creativity and sublimity,
which was a theme of the Romantic Era. Opium, of course, is a rather
extreme take on the concept of intangible beauty and creativity, but valid
nonetheless.
Kubla Khan embraces the zeitgeist of Romanticism. It delineates on a
surreal and awesome experience, particularly an aesthetic one, as the
setting is described as being extremely beautiful. The second section on the
poem emphasizes heavily on the beautiful features of the place. Also
attributing to the Romantic Movement is the complete denial of reason in
nature. If the poem were to be taken literally, it would be impossible and
paradoxical. Many impossible concepts are scenes are present and
omnipresent, such as the endless river running through the endless caverns,
and the walls and towers surrounding the entire place. In an endless place,having a surrounding structure is impossible. There is also the fact that a
dome covers the whole place, but the area is all sunny save for the sylva
patches and the icy caverns. Clearly since this is not a reasonable idea, it
must be a metaphor for something else in fear of the poem being
nonsensical. This neglect of ration and instead focus on aestheticism and
feeling is wholly a Romantic idea as opposed to a more rationalized
Enlightenment way of thinking.
The paradoxical and poetical nature of the setting is further expanded
upon. Again contradicting the indoor nature of the area, the ground is saidto be fertile. In fact, the entire place is summed up as A sunny pleasure-
dome with caves of ice! clearly very imaginative. Fertile land, forests, and
ice caves cannot all together exist within a close proximity to each other. And
even less likely than they being in close proximity to each other would they
being far from another, as this is all under one roof. Once again, this makes
no rational sense.
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Coleridge and the Third Eye in Kubla Khan
Xanadu, the name of the place where this opium-laced reverie occurs,
has gained some cultural significance. It has been shown to be the apical
place of beauty, but at the same time with some sort of underlying sinister
feel. Though everything is pretty, with the flowers, shining sun, etc, there are
some contradictory imperfections. For instance, the lifeless ocean and the
sunless sea are abnormal, but this time in a creepy sense instead of being
abnormal in a beautiful and positive sense. The strangely captivating place
has been referred to in many other things later on. A modern play called
Xanadu, for instance, and the home of Charles Foster Kane (which is also
very lavish and beautiful, yet sinister).
Coleridges third eye is manifested best during the prophecy given to
him by his ancestors. In the setting is a great chasm which is described as
savage and holy, savage meaning pure and untouched, is present. The
chasm is not of trepidation, but awesome and humbling, much like the rest of
the place. From the endless chasm, a forceful geyser is shot out. Note again
the paradox: That a jet of water is coming out of something endlessly deep.
Amid the tumult of the river, geyser and ocean, Khans ancestor appears to
him to give him a prophecy.
Here is the apex of Coleridges third eye. His ancestor appearing to him
to give him a prophecy is an elegant composition of imagination and divine
touch, as well as the inner mind. Prophecy is associated with a kind of higher
level of consciousness, the third eye. The prophecy itself and the event of
the prophecy being represented is, however, brief and vague. Curiously
enough, Ancestral voices prophesying war! is the only line used.
Furthermore, that is the only line in which it is an apostrophe, since there is
another character in which he is conversing with that is not wholly there.
Toward the end of the poem, Xanadu is revealed to be Coleridges
mind. In no other place can this otherworldly existence possibly be depicted
if not from the mind, particularly an opium-laced reverie. The dome and
surrounding structures of the place is his skull. Yet the endlessness of the
place represents his never-ending thoughts. The geyser represents a strike of
inspiration, some unique, out-of (literally) nowhere jet of thoughts that opens
the third eye. More specifically, it is a metaphor for the opium rush. The
chasm that it comes from is the third eye itself, normally grand,
unapproachable due to its greatness, and unutilized.
The sinister beauty is also important to note. The entire place is a
metaphor for how everything is beautiful during his hallucination, yet there is
something sinister lying underneath. Things arent quite right quite natural,
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Coleridge and the Third Eye in Kubla Khan
which is a fair attribution to drugs. Perhaps this negative approach is to show
that opium is not the ideal way to utilize the third eye, but it works.
In determination, the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
has a thematic preoccupation with the third eye. It is not the only theme, but
a keynote linked to his own personal, opium-molded life. The entire poemdescribing Xanadu and its events are a metaphor for Coleridges own mind
and its encounter with the third eye.