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    Coleridge and Opium

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    Alvaro

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Coleridge and Opium

    Uploaded by

    Alvaro
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    3 views1 page

    Coleridge and Opium

    Uploaded by

    Alvaro

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    COLERIDGE AND OPIUM: A SUMMARY

    The "pleasure-dome in Xanadu" from Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan" serves as the very
    impressionistic and expressive image that characterises the Romanticism love for the exotic,
    fantasy and the sublime. The image of the pleasure-dome brings a wondrous and exotic visión
    before the eyes, located in an unknown and huge land, Xanadu.

    Through the such attributes as stately and majestic, Coleridge develops grandeur and
    magnificence of the pleasure-dome, that makes us imagine a place with lot of beauty and
    splendour. The lavishness of the pleasure-dome is a clear signifier to the creator’s wealth and
    power, Kublai Khan, while also being a perfect example of what man can imagine.

    Moreover, Xanadu’s pleasure-dome is a blending of nature and its counterfeit because in the
    description it is 'limitless to man' and is covered by gardens and rivers. The union of the
    natural with the artificial makes clear the Romantic concept of the harmony of nature with
    man and the power of imagination and inspiration in transforming the life.

    The recreation of Xanadu in the image of the pleasure dome carries a sense of escapism and
    enchantment which urges the readers to immerse themselves in the world of fantasy and
    imagination. The strange enchantment of Xanadu and its mysterious otherworldliness take the
    reader out of the realm of reality into a world where one’s dreams and desires are fulfilled in
    an abode of imagination without limits.

    To sum up, "the pleasure dome in Xanadu" in Coleridge's poem is a symbol of the Romantic
    yearning for the beauty, transcendence, and the sublime, encapsulating the essence of a
    dream, where fantasy and reality melts together, and where the imagination rules everything.

    IS COLERIDGE A GUILTY?
    Coleridge is not literally described as a guilty. The controversy arises about his creation during
    a dream provoked by the opium. It is questioned the use of opium in its creative process, but
    the focus is in the poem and its meaning in the romantic literature. The controversy is more
    focused on the source of inspiration than in the culpability of Coleridge.

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