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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.