“Crossing the Bar”

“Crossing the Bar”, written by Alfred Tennyson was written during the Victorian Era, which symbolizes Queen Elizabeth’s reign.  poetry created during this period bridged the gap between poetry of the Romantic period and modern 20th century poetry.  “Crossing the Bar” is a speaker’s account of change and the beginning of the end.  

Here, It does not necessarily matter what in fact is ending.  Tennyson uses the sea as a metaphor through the use of imagery and poetic form.  Here, the poem is written in ABAB form, a rhythmic pattern similar to the movement of an ocean wave, “Sunset and Evening star-And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar-When I put out to sea” (1-4).  The language here insinuates death, the death of life through the eyes of Christianity, or more symbolically, a period of time. 

On a basic level, “Crossing the Bar” appears to be representative of the speakers preparation of his own death.  “Sunset and evening star-And one clear call for me!” (1-2).  “And may there be no sadness of farewell-When I embark” (11-12).  phrases like a “call for me” or “When I put out to sea” symbolizes his need to leave his life behind.  The tone of this poem is melancholy and sorrowful as the speaker embarks on his journey into the afterlife.  Yet, he looks at it as a new journey rather than an end, “I hope to see my pilot face to face-When I have crossed the bar” (15-16).  The speaker may be weary of what is to come but embraces the unknown instead of rejecting it.  

Secondarily, “Crossing the Bar” has strong Christian undertones within it’s context.  Even the use of “crossing” used in the title and in the last stanza, “When I have crossed the bar” (16), represents the Christian term for “crossing over” into the after life.  The mention of the “evening star” in the first stanza symbolizes the “bright light” that is said to lure those on the bed of death to leave their physical body behind.  He hopes that no one feels “sadness of farewell” as he “embarks” on his journey into the afterlife.  The speaker mentions, “I hope to see my pilot face to face-When I have crossed the bar” (15-16).  The pilot may be considered God, and the speaker is eager to finally meet such a source of mystery when he has crossed the bar, or “heavenly gates”.  

      

       Lastly,  “Crossing the Bar” is symbolic for the beginning and end of “something”.  As mentioned earlier, the Victoria Era symbolics the political reign of QueenVictoria n England.  Victorian poets were greatly influenced by Romantic poets, and Victorian poetry was said to bridge the gap between the poetry of the Enlightenment and modern 20th century poetry.  Here, the speaker speaks of the end of a period and the beginning of a new one.  This could be a physical journey, or just a period of change in general.  The speaker does not want to feel sorrow as he leaves his memory of the past, “And may there be no sadness of farewell-When I embark”, yet, he is excited to explore on his journey after he crosses the bar. Literature during the Victorian period represented a longing for exploration and adventure.  Kings Solomon's Mines, written by Rodger Haggard, is a great representative of that.  The novel’s contents and plot surrounds around adventure common of this time period.  

“Crossing the Bar” written by Alfred Tennyson, is a speakers account the beginning of an end in regards to death, death in the eyes of Christianity, or adventure.    

"The World is Too Much With Us"

“The World is Too Much With Us”

William Wordsworth, like many other Romantic poets during his time, felt a deep connection with nature and worked hard for others to follow their creative and spiritual way of life.  “The World is  Too Much With Us, follows this theme, and mainly discusses Wordsworth disapproval of how we in fact treat the world and the nature encompassed in it.

In the first stanza , Wordsworth drops key information, “The world is too much with u; late and soon-Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;-Little we see in Nature that is ours...” (1-3).  Wordsworth indicates that humans are too focused on material objects rather than appreciating what we already attain in the beauty of nature.  Here he capitalizes the word “nature” in attempts to personify it and treat it as its own, powerful, living being.  lHe charges humans with the guilt of  loosing touch with anything meaningful in the world, “We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” (4). 

Wordsworth believes that humans are so far from being harmonic with nature:

“ This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon-The winds that will be howling at all hours-

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers-For this, for everything, we are out of tune-

It moves us not” (5-9).  

One seems to ignore nature in its entirety, thus, rejecting it from ones lifestyle for a more materialistic and gluttonous one.  

Towards the end of the Sonnet the speaker states:

“I’d rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn-Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea-Or 

hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn” (9-14).  

Here, the speaker would be happier living as a Pagan, a man of another religion, just to see if he appreciated the world much more than the average Christian.  Overall, The speaker is in fact angry with man’s connection with nature, and prompts all to step back and appreciate the natural things Earth has to offer, rather than relying on material needs.   

MIDTERM*** KUBLA KHAN

“Kubla Khan”

Romanticism.  To some, their initial response of this term would be to conjure up images of young lovers, beautiful spring days, flowers, and cupid.  However, the technical definition stands as the, “attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century,” according to the Britannica Encyclopedia (4).  Romanticism can be viewed as the rejection of order and rationality during the late 18th-century.  

Samuel Taylor Coleridge for example, was a well known poet during the mid 18th century.  He wrote many brilliant works, including “Kubla Khan” all representing romantic ideologies of the Enlightenment.   The Romantic era was a period of self expression and the acceptance of nature into ones everyday life.   According to The History Guides article on the Romantic Era, “The philosophes had attacked the church because it blocked human reason.  The Romantics attacked the Enlightenment because it blocked free play of the emotions and creativity”. (3) The romantics believed that to live a fulfilled life, one must experience both sorrow and happiness to gain completion and understanding of the human soul, and ultimately achieve true bliss and personal satisfaction.  

Considering the fact that realists opposed nature, religion, art, and all other forms of expression, the Romantics, much like Coleridge turned to hallucinogenics to help them “escape” into a world un-tainted by reason.  “Kubla Khan” is one of Coleridge’s most well known and riveting poems he had created during his career, and, the way in which this poem came to exist is almost as interesting as the content itself.  The Romantics placed great importance on the idea of the imagination.  To them, within one’s imagination nearly anything was possible, and where one didn’t have to live under the watchful and oppressive eye of realism.  Coleridge, felt that science was diminishing what God had intended for the World he had created, so as a result, a Romantic poet like himself, chooses to live in a world based off emotions and feelings without boundaries.  

In a dream world, anything is possible, and the Romantics strived to capture that feeling of ecstasy and supreme happiness.  To attain such a strong connection to ones imagination, Coleridge used Opium as his method of transportation.  As legend has it, Coleridge had just taken Opium while he read a story about how Kubla Khan commanded the creation of the new palace.  He then fell into a drug induced sleep.  During his slumber, it is said that he had an amazingly vivid vision where he created more than two-hundred lines of poetry.  Upon his awakening, he began writing furiously, including every last detail of his vision that he was able to remember.  Unfortunately, a few stanzas into the poem, he was interrupted by a “visitor” who has been historically described as a “business man from Porlock” and sadly lost his train of thought (5).

On a basic level, “Kubla Khan” can be deemed as just the recording of a drug addict during his hallucinogenic trip.  The first three stanzas represent pure imagination, “...And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills-Where blossom’d many an incense-bearing tree; and here were forests ancient of the hills, enfolding sunny spots of greeney” (Coleridge 8-11). Here is building some type of utopia which sounds absolutely beautiful.  Have people been looking into this poem for centuries, picking apart symbolism  and allusions meanwhile, this is just a “trip” that nearly anyone could have?  Are we being over analytical?  When it comes down to it, “Kubla Khan” may be just the recordings of a frustrated poet, who uses hallucinogenic drugs  to help calm himself and feel at peace.  

One a second level, “Kubla Khan” can be considered an allegory to the oppression those underwent during the Enlightenment.  Unjust child labor, and unsanitary working and living conditions were man made errors in effect during this time. In stanza two, we see elements of war prophecies, “Abs’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far-Ancestral voices prophesying war!” (Coleridge 29-30).  Thus, following an event of “eruption”, “As if his earth in fast thick pants were breathing-A mighty fountain momently was forced; Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst-Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,” (Coleridge 18-21).  Coleridge says that following a natural disaster a man made one is bound to happen.  With the rejection of nature, a natural disaster, comes a man made one such as a civil war between the Romantics and Realists.  He states that this is a beautiful land, yet overcome with such hellish qualities, much like 18th century England itself, “ A savage place! as holy and enchanted as e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted-By woman wailing for hr demon-lover!” (Coleridge14-16).  He calls this land of Xanadu a “pleasure dome” in line thirty two and later says, “A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!”  Even though, Coleridge can live in a fantasy world, he must face the facts that realism lurks over him and he can truly never be at peace with nature and his imagination.  similar to the idea of the “glass celling”; you can see or imagine what you want but may never actually attain it. 

On a more complex level, Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” may be an illusion for the  human imagination itself. Within the first three stanza’s Coleridge builds Xanadu with his imagination, which can be a metaphor for the construction of ones mind.  The “stately pleasure-dome” can be symbolic of ones actual brain while the rivers described in the first stanza, “Where Alph, the sacred river, ran-Through caverns measureless to man-Down to a sunless sea” (Coleridge 3-5), may be thoughts and ideas running through the mind and “fertilizing” it with thought.  There are “gardens” which have “blossom’d” symbolizing ideas and the creative process itself, and ultimately, “enfolding sunny spots of greenery”, the final idea.  Yet, as we make our way into the second stanza, this bliss begins to dissipate as he comes to reality that his “fountain” of thoughts will never come into reality as long as he lives in the rational and oppressive world, again relating to the idea of the “glass celling”.  

On a fourth and final level, Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” can be an allusion for a sexual experience and encounter.  In he first stanza he introduces us to “the pleasure dome” followed by a vivid description of Xanadu that can be easily associated with the female anatomy, “Through caverns measureless to man-Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground-With walls and towers were girdled round...”.  The term “pleasure” itself has gained a sexual connotation among the english language as well.  As we enter the second stanza, the language grows more vivid and suggestive, “A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted-By woman wailing for her demon-lover!” (Coleridge 13-14) This can be an allusion of acting one ones sexual desires and having sexual intercourse. 

 “As id this earth in fast thick pants were breathing-a mighty fountain momently was forced-Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst-Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail: And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and over-It flung up momently the sacred river...”  (Coleridge 13-24).  

The quote above is a direct representative of the sexual process and climax.  As the stanza continues, these same images remain present.  In the last stanza, the speaker recalls the “damsel” “In a vision” he once saw.  He names her an “Abyssinian maid”.  He longs to regain that moment of passion and ecstasy in lines forty two through forty four, “Could I revive within me, Her symphony and sony-To such a deep delight ‘twould win me”.  This sexual encounter, was in fact, his own “paradise”.  

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” was written during the Enlightenment period.  It was known that Coleridge was dependent on hallucinogenic drugs such as Opium, and was under the influence while creating “Kubla Khan”.  Is his poem just the erotic recordings of a drug induced trip, or, does it have deeper meaning.  The answer has been debated over the centuries and one may continue to perceive it as they like using their own imagination, which is exactly what the Romantics prompted the reader do.   

Bibliography:

1. "550. Kubla Khan. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Oxford Book of English Verse." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.bartleby.com/101/550.html>.
2. Doré, Gustave. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge>.
3. Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 16: The Romantic Era." The History Guide -- Main. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture16a.html>.
4. "Romanticism -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia." Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/Romanticism>.
5. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/292>.