The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Amitav Ghosh is a renowned Indian author known for his works of fiction and non-fiction that often explore themes of history, migration, identity, and the environment. Born on July 11, 1956, in Kolkata, India, Ghosh has gained international acclaim for his richly detailed narratives and profound storytelling. He won the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India's highest literary honor. Some of his most important works include The Glass Palace (2008), a historical novel that spans several generations and countries, focusing on the impact of colonialism in Burma, India, and Malaysia; The Ibis Trilogy, a series of historical novels set in the 19th century, which include Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011), and Flood of Fire (2015). The series explores the opium trade between India and China and its far-reaching consequences. The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016) is a non-fiction work examining literature and history's role in understanding climate change.

The Shadow Lines (1988) is one of the most successful novels by Amitav Ghosh that delves into the complexities of memory, history, and the partition of India. The novel is set against significant historical events, including the Partition of India in 1947 and the communal riots in Calcutta and Dhaka in the 1960s. The story is narrated by an unnamed protagonist who reflects on his childhood and family history, particularly focusing on his cousin Tridib and their shared experiences. The narrative moves fluidly between different periods and locations, including Calcutta, London, and Dhaka, weaving together personal and collective histories. Ghosh's writing is characterized by its intricate structure and rich, evocative prose. The narrative shifts between different periods and perspectives, creating a mosaic of interconnected stories. This non-linear approach mirrors the fragmented nature of memory and history. The Shadow Lines has been widely acclaimed for its literary merit and depth of insight. It won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1989 and has been praised for its nuanced portrayal of historical events and their impact on individual lives.

Characters of The Shadow Lines:

The protagonist is an unnamed narrator, a young boy born and raised in Calcutta. He narrates the events of his early life, leaping back and forth in time. He adores his uncle, Tridib, and enjoys his stories about history and foreign places. His journey to understand the past, particularly the death of Tridib, drives much of the narrative. Tridib is the narrator’s uncle. He is a sensitive and worldly person. He is a dreamer and storyteller who profoundly shapes the narrator's worldview. As a child, he lived in London with the Price family while his father received medical care. He develops romantic feelings for May Price as they engage in an exchange of letters. Tridib's death during the 1964 communal riots in Dhaka becomes a pivotal event in the novel, symbolizing the fragility of human connections across borders. May Price is a family friend of Tridib and the narrator. She is a professional oboist with a British orchestra. She develops a close epistolary friendship with Tridib and eventually finds herself falling in love with him. She represents the intersection of cultures and the complexities of cross-cultural relationships. Her relationship with Tridib is both tender and tragic, reflecting the novel's themes of love and loss. Th'amma is the narrator's grandmother. Originally born in Dhaka, she becomes the headmistress of an all-girls school in Calcutta and moves there earlier in her life. She is respected within the community and by the narrator's family and is portrayed as patient and strong-willed. Her experiences during the Partition and her deep attachment to her ancestral home in Dhaka highlight the themes of displacement and belonging. She embodies the struggles of a generation caught between tradition and the upheavals of history. Ila is the narrator's cousin. The narrator is romantically interested in her from a young age and frequently feels hurt by her flippant treatment of him. When he inadvertently reveals his feelings, she expresses sympathy. She shows an inclination to be dishonest at times, fabricating stories that make her life seem more glamorous. She comes from a wealthier background than the narrator and, seemingly as a result, treats Indian places with casual boredom. Later in life, she shows a strong preference for Western culture, as she believes India is stifling her freedom. She marries Nick Price and stays with him even after he cheats on her with multiple women. Nick Price is the younger brother of May and a friend of the narrator's family, Nick is a somewhat enigmatic figure. He marries Ila, who treats him with reverence throughout the book. The narrator expresses jealousy and frustration towards him. It is later revealed that he is engaging in multiple affairs, though the marriage still continues. Mayadebi is Tridib's mother and Th'amma's sister. She is described as decisive and strong. Shaheb is Tridib's father. He is characterized as being thoroughly Europeanized in a way that the narrator's grandmother finds distasteful. She repeatedly describes him as useless. Jethamoshai is Th'amma's uncle. She describes his efforts to care for her family in her youth. She travels to Dhaka to "rescue" him, only to cause his death at the hands of a violent mob. Robi is Tridib's younger brother. He is a more practical and grounded character compared to Tridib.

Summary of The Shadow Lines:

The story is divided into two parts. The first part is titled ‘Going Away’ and it begins in London in the early 1980s. The unnamed narrator recounts a series of stories and memories to his cousin Ila and his uncle Robi. The stories and memories belong to the narrator; his uncle Tridib; and his grandmother, Tha'mma. He describes Tridib's various habits, including his somewhat distant manner with other people and frequent visits to a tea stand in Gole Park. He informs that in 1902, Tha’mma’s father and her uncle Jethamosai alienated and began practicing their feudal duties (Jamindari) separately in Dhaka, British India. The two split their huge house and farm in two parts and raised a wall between them. The two families stopped talking to each other. Tha’mma’s younger sister Mayadebi got married to Saheb who was the son of Justice Chandrashekhar Chaudhuri, a friend of Mayadebi’s father. After their marriages, Tha’mma and Mayadebi lost all contacts with Jethamoshai’s family. Tha’mma becomes a reputed teacher and she actively takes part in processions against the British India government. The narrator’s father was still a child during that period. Saheb becomes a wealthy diplomat of British India. In 1939, he falls ill and it is advised that he must go to London for better medical treatment. When Mrs. Price, the daughter of Lionel Treswason, a British friend of Tha’mma’s and Saheb’s fathers, came to know about Saheb’s illness, she invited him to her home in London. Tridib was nine years old when he accompanied Saheb and Mayadebi to London while his elder brother Jatin stayed in Dhaka. Tridib comes close to Snipe, Mrs. Price’s husband, and he was hugely inspired by Alan Treswason, Mrs. Price’s brother. In 1940, during World War II, a bomb hit killing Alan and his friends. After that, Saheb and his family return to Dhaka. After Partition in 1947, Tha’mma’s and Mayadebi’s family moved to Calcutta.

In India, Mayadebi gives birth to her third child, Robi, while Tha’mma’s son also marries and his wife gives birth to their son, the narrator. Jatin also marries and becomes the father of a daughter named Ila. Mrs. Price, whose daughter May was an infant when Tridib was in London, has a son named Nick. Ila's parents are wealthy, and she spends her childhood traveling around the world for her father's work. The narrator, on the other hand, never gets far outside of Calcutta. Instead, he spends his time listening to Tridib tell stories about London and other faraway lands. Tridib teaches the narrator to use his imagination and explains that the world in one's imagination can be just as real as the outside world. Meanwhile, Jatin moves to London with his family where he lives with the Price Family. Ila gets enamored with Nick, son of Mrs. Price. They often visit India and Tha’mma is not happy as she finds that Ila is too much westernized. She wears western clothes, smokes and drinks alcohol. In 1959, May Price begins writing letters to Tridib and they develop a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Ila develops a relationship with Nick whom she loves. The narrator describes a time when Ila, Robi, and the narrator were all back in Calcutta from their respective colleges, and Ila came to visit, wearing blue jeans and asking to go out to a club. Robi is hesitant, but Ila calls him a hypocrite, as he drinks when he is at school. They go to a club with music and a burlesque show. Robi wants to leave and Ila tries to dance with some businessmen, but Robi violently intervenes. Upset and angry, Ila screams at the narrator and Robi, saying she is only free when she is not in Calcutta. The narrator informed Tha’mma about the incident and she got very upset and never spoke to Ila again. The day before she dies, she sends a seething letter to his school saying that he should be expelled for visiting brothels. He finds her letter particularly disturbing as he did in fact go to those places, and had no idea how she knew. Since his childhood, the narrator fantasizes about Ila. After graduation, the narrator visits Mrs. Price’s house in London. Ila flippantly comments that life means very little outside of London and Europe at large, which angers the narrator. They have dinner at the Prices' home and May reveals that Nick lost his job because he was accused of embezzlement. The narrator and Ila go upstairs to sleep and he inadvertently reveals his feelings for her. She expresses sympathy, but prefers Nick over him.

The second part is titled ‘Coming Home’.

Tha’mma retires as a respected head teacher of her institute and struggles against the boredom of retirement. After settling in Calcutta, she never visited Dhaka, her birthplace, again. Now she begins missing her childhood memories. She informs the narrator about her childhood and their huge house in Dhaka and how their family split apart. One day while taking a walk, she meets an elderly man who informs her that her uncle Jethamosai is still alive in Dhaka. The narrator’s father feels nervous and uncomfortable when Tha’mma expresses her strong will to visit Dhaka and rescue her uncle. Meanwhile, Tridib continues his pen friendship with May. In a letter, he recounts how he saw a couple having sex in a home with a hole in it. She is upset by the letter but also feels overcome with emotion for him.

During the same time, Saheb gets a promotion and is transferred to the Indian embassy in Dhaka. When the narrator’s father informs Thamma about this, she decides to go to Dhaka with Saheb and Mayadebi. In London, Ila decides to marry Nick and the narrator feels heartbroken. During their wedding, Tridib drinks alcohol and under its effect he tries sexual advances on May who resists. The next morning, Tridib apologizes and May forgives him. After a few years, the narrator meets Ila at a concert at St Martin's-in-the-Field. Ila is too disturbed and begins crying. The narrator tries to comfort her and asks what happened. Ila informs that Nick has been cheating on her and he has many extramarital affairs. However, she insists that she will continue the marriage because she truly loves him.

Tha’mma prepares to leave for Dhaka with Tridib, Roni, and their parents. The narrator informs that it was the last time he saw Tridib. He then recounts his memories of riots. One day, when he was at school, he heard gunshots and a roar of the mob. In Dhaka, Tha’mma notices that everything has changed. Their old huge house is dilapidated now and has been turned into a bike mechanic shop. When she inquires about Jethamoshai, she comes to know that he is still living. A mechanic named Saiffudin takes her, Tridib, and May to Jethamoshai’s current address. Tha’mma is shocked after seeing Jethamoshai and her cousin in such poor condition. Jethamoshai is too old and cannot remember anything. He fails to recognize Tha’mma. Tha’mma asks her cousin to come with her and live a better life. While her cousin is willing, Jethamoshai refuses to go with them. Somehow they trick him to get into their car. Soon they leave his home, but at the same time, a riot breaks out and they encounter a violent mob standing by a fire. During their struggle against the mob, Tridib gets murdered.

The narrator recounts the violent riots in Dhaka and Calcutta during that period and how both the governments of the two nations tried to ignore the suffering of common people. He informs how the death of Tridib affected the whole family. Once Ila took the narrator and Roni to a faux Indian restaurant in London, and the owner asked them about Dhaka. Robi storms out when the owner starts praising a certain neighborhood, as it is where his brother Tridib was murdered. Outside the restaurant, he then tells the narrator and Ila that he has a recurring nightmare about the scene. One night when the narrator was having dinner with May, he asked her about Tridib’s death. She informed that when they were trying to take Tha’mma’s uncle to Saheb’s house, they were trapped by the violent mob. The mob asked them to leave Jethamoshai and they wished to kill him. Tha’mma intervened and tried to protect him. Tridib stepped in to save Tha’mma and was killed in the process.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

R.P. Blackmur | A Critic’s Job of Work | Summary, Analysis

 

R.P. Blackmur | A Critic’s Job of Work | Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. R.P. Blackmur was an American literary critic and poet particularly associated with the New Criticism movement. His full name is Richard Palmer Blackmur. He taught creative writing and English literature at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA.

In 1935, Blackmur published his first significant work titled The Double Agent: Essays in Craft and Elucidation. He analyzed works of various poets including E. E. Cummings, Ezra Pound, and Wallace Stevens. He emphasized the importance of understanding the craft behind literary works, advocating for a close reading of texts. In 1952, Blackmur published the collection of all his previously published essays and some new ones in the book Language as Gesture. It is a pivotal work that delves into the intricate relationship between language and poetry. In his essays, Blackmur advocates for a close reading of texts, encouraging readers to appreciate the nuances of language. He critiques simplistic interpretations of poetry, arguing for a more sophisticated understanding that considers the context and subtext of literary works.

One of the essays in Language as Gesture is A Critic’s Job of Work which is a fascinating exploration of the role and responsibilities of a critic in the literary world. Blackmur, as a New Critic, emphasizes that a text should be viewed as an autonomous whole, that is, the text is complete in itself. He argues against seeking meaning outside the text, advocating for a close reading that focuses on the words and structure within. He believes that criticism is a serious endeavor that requires thoroughness and dedication. A critic's job is not merely to summarize or interpret but to engage deeply with the work, illuminating its complexities without doing the reader's work for them. Throughout his essays, Blackmur is particularly concerned with the nuances of language. He believes that understanding the precise use of words is crucial to grasping the essence of a literary piece. The effectiveness of criticism, according to Blackmur, often lies in the technique employed in analyzing examples. He stresses the importance of how examples are handled to convey deeper meanings.

According to Blackmur, a critic’s job is to judge a writer’s work objectively independent of any attention of the author or reader. A critic should not think about what feelings the text would evoke in the reader or what was the author’s intention. A true critic objectively judges the text, he explores the internal properties of the text such as symbols, irony, paradoxes, and ambiguity, and finds out the meaning. Blackmur distinguishes an amateur critic, a person who is learning how to critique, and a professional critic. An amateur critic is not an expert. This kind of critic works not for money but for their interest to pass criticism. They are not giving constructive criticism. Such critics are independent of any kind of influence. Contrary to this, professional critics are experts and they work for certain institutions and are confined by the propagation of their school of thought. Blackmur suggests that an amateur critic is better than a professional critic. The new critics are fresh with ideas and they do not stick with the established norms. He supports amateur critics because they are independent of any kind of influence or biases. Whereas a professional critic is already an expert and has an established way of working, confined by his school of thought and feelings and they are going to critic in the same way. Professional critic attaches themselves to a particular doctrine and murders their insight. According to him, a critic must reduce his intense purpose. If the critical purpose is narrowed down during criticism, the result appears beautiful. When a critic tries to criticize a work on a purpose, that he is determined to show certain aspects of his own school of thought in the given text, then he won’t be able to unbiasedly analyze the text. However, if he decides to analyze the text with a free mind, giving up all his predetermined notions, he will be able to actually analyze the good and bad points of the text. If a critic analyzes a work with the intent to praise it, irrespective of its quality, he will deliberately ignore the weaker points and that is not constructive criticism. Blackmur says that an amateur critic uses his honest intuitive power to analyze a work while a professional critic uses his predetermined or set intensive purpose to analyze the same text.

“Like walking, criticism is a pretty nearly universal art; both require a constant intricate shifting and catching of balance; neither can be questioned much in process; and few perform either really well. For either a new terrain is fatiguing and awkward, and in our day most men prefer paved walks and some form of rapid transport, some easy theory or overmastering dogma.” (R.P.Blackmur, “A Critic’s Job of Work”)

Blackmur compares walking with criticism because he considers both the ‘arts’ of a similar kind that call for attention to detail and utmost care. He suggests that professional critics prefer tried and tested approaches for much the same reason as ‘walkers’ would look for paved walks and rapid transport. A professional critic would not try to do something unique while criticizing a work just like people who walk, they try to look for a paved path to ease their movement.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss literary theory and literary criticism. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Daddy by Sylvia Plath | Structure, Summary, Analysis

 

Daddy by Sylvia Plath | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Daddy’ is perhaps Sylvia Plath’s best-known poem. The poem was first published in Ariel in 1965 and later included in The Collected Poems in 1981. Plath wrote "Daddy" on October 12, 1962, shortly after separating from her husband, Ted Hughes. This period was marked by intense emotional turmoil for her. It is a powerful and complex poem that delves into themes of male authority, trauma, and the struggle for identity. Told from the perspective of a woman addressing her father, the memory of whom has an oppressive power over her, the poem details the speaker's struggle to break free of his influence. The poem explores the deification and mythologizing of authority figures, particularly the speaker's father. It reflects on the speaker's complex feelings towards her father, combining love and resentment.  Sylvia Plath lost her father at a very young age.

The speaker begins by idolizing her father and presenting him as the most important figure in her past. The speaker expresses her anger as a woman who felt oppressed by her parents' expectations of her, society's hindering roles in place for women, and her ex-husband's unfaithfulness. The struggle to break free from the shadow of her father's influence is a central theme. In the poem, the speaker alludes to the toxic male authority symbolized by her father, comparing ‘Daddy’ to a Nazi soldier. The poet uses Holocaust imagery to symbolize the pain and terror of oppression that she as a female felt in the patriarchal setup. In addition, the poet also uses other violent myths and history, including those of Electra, vampirism, and voodoo. In the end, the speaker alludes to her marriage as a continuation of the struggle and oppression.

Structure of Daddy:

The poem has 90 lines set in 16 quintains (five-line stanzas). However, there is no other specific pattern or form for the poem, that is poem is written in free-verse quintains. The regularity of stanza length and short lines suggests a weird nursery rhyme. Plath has used irregular meter for the poem. The meter is roughly tetrameter, four beats, but also uses pentameter with a mix of stresses (iambs, anapests, trochee). The poet has used enjambment, end-stopped lines, metaphor, simile, imagery, symbolism, allusion, apostrophe, onomatopoeia, repetition, and alliteration in the poem.

Summary of Daddy:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-5

“You do not do, you do not do   

Any more, black shoe

In which I have lived like a foot   

For thirty years, poor and white,   

Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.”

The speaker begins with an apostrophe as she directly addresses her father (whom she lost when she was eight). The speaker says that for 30 years, she has been living trapped inside the memory of her father, but now she will get rid of it. She uses metaphor to compare the oppressive dominance of her father (or his memories) over her with a ‘black shoe.’ Inside a tight shoe, it is dark and there is no air. While a shoe is expected to protect the foot, a tight shoe may cause trouble and aches. The speaker is not wearing that shoe though, she feels as if she is living in it, trapped, in the dark, bearing the weight of her whole existence. The speaker says after 30 years, she will no longer be trapped in the memory of her father. The speaker feels that the poverty, ill condition, fear, and inability to breathe, or sneeze (Achoo) are all due to his father’s oppressive dominance over her which still lingers. Achoo is an example of onomatopoeia. The poet used repetition in the very first line and when repetition is so close, it is termed epizeuxis.

The metaphor ‘black shoe’ and the image of the speaker living in a black shoe alludes to the popular nursery rhyme "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe."

Stanza 2 Lines 6-10

“Daddy, I have had to kill you.   

You died before I had time——

Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,   

Ghastly statue with one gray toe   

Big as a Frisco seal”

In line 6, the speaker directly addresses her father as Daddy (apostrophe). The speaker reveals the extent of oppression she might have felt as she declares that had he not died, she would have killed him. She explains that she did not have time to kill her father, because he died before she could manage to do it. The speaker uses metaphor to express that her father was God to her. However, he was a heavy, huge statue (of God) with no feelings for her. Sylvia’s father suffered diabetic gangrene and one of his feet was amputated. She describes the remaining toe as a seal, suggesting how enormous and overbearing her father seemed to her. He was hardened, without feelings, and now that he is dead, she thinks he looks like an enormous, ominous statue. The speaker uses hyperbole to show how small and insignificant she feels to her father who has taken up her entire life. She compares him to a statue that has overtaken all of the United States. For her, her father, or his memories are larger than life. He is also evil. 

Stanza 3 Lines 11-15

“And a head in the freakish Atlantic   

Where it pours bean green over blue   

In the waters off beautiful Nauset.   

I used to pray to recover you.

Ach, du.”

In this stanza, the speaker reveals that for her, her father was her whole world. She continues the metaphor of the statue of God. The statue's head is in the Atlantic, on the coast at Nauset Beach, Cape Cod, where the Plath family used to holiday. The father icon stretches across the USA. She mentions how earnestly she prayed for her father’s recovery as a kid. The last line is a German phrase, meaning ‘Oh, you.’ Her father was a German immigrant to the USA.

Stanza 4 Lines 16-20

“In the German tongue, in the Polish town   

Scraped flat by the roller

Of wars, wars, wars.

But the name of the town is common.   

My Polack friend”

In this stanza, the poet remembers her father came from a Polish town, where German was the main language spoken. She explains that the town he grew up in had endured one war after another. She alludes to the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. She mentions that she would never be able to identify which specific town her father was from because the name of his hometown was common. She learned this from her Polack friend.

Stanza 5 Lines 21-25

“Says there are a dozen or two.   

So I never could tell where you   

Put your foot, your root,

I never could talk to you.

The tongue stuck in my jaw.”

The speaker continues to explain what her friend from Poland has said. There are more than a dozen towns by the same name in Poland. So she can't ascertain which specific town her father was from. All this information she gathered from her friend as she never had a talk with her father. The speaker hints at a lack of communication, instability, and paralysis due to fear of her father, she just couldn’t converse with her father. He was so strict and terrifying,

Stanza 6 Lines 26-30

“It stuck in a barb wire snare.   

Ich, ich, ich, ich,

I could hardly speak.

I thought every German was you.   

And the language obscene”

The speaker continues to remember how fearful she felt whenever she was with her father during her childhood. Whenever she tried to speak, she stumbled and continued to repeat ‘ich, ich, ich,… which is the German word for ‘I’. She was unable to communicate with him. She explains that despite being her father, he was nothing specific for her and she felt as if every German was her father, strict, harsh, and obscene.

Stanza 7 Lines 31-35

“An engine, an engine

Chuffing me off like a Jew.

A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.   

I began to talk like a Jew.

I think I may well be a Jew.”

In this stanza, the speaker alludes to the ‘death trains’ (engine, engine) taking her off to a Nazi concentration camp where millions of Jews were cruelly tortured, gassed, and cremated during World War II. "Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen", were concentration camps where Jews were worked to death, starved, and murdered. She uses a simile to make the connection more prominent, saying "I began to talk like a Jew. / I think I may well be a Jew". The speaker associates her fear and terror of her father with the struggle of the Jewish people against the Nazis.

Stanza 8 Lines 36-40

“The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna   

Are not very pure or true.

With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck   

And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack

I may be a bit of a Jew.”

In these lines, the speaker mentions how her father had a strict code of morality, purity, and behavior. The white snow and the clear beer contrast starkly with the dark deeds inflicted by Nazis in the name of racial purity. The speaker is consciously, and deliberately choosing sides. The speaker identifies not only with Jews but also with gypsies. In fact, she seems to identify with anyone who has ever felt oppressed by the Germans. In the last line of the stanza, the speaker suggests that she is probably part Jewish and part Gypsy.

Stanza 9 Lines 41-45

“I have always been scared of you,

With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.   

And your neat mustache

And your Aryan eye, bright blue.

Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You——”

The speaker continues the allusion to Nazi German as her father and admits that she has always been afraid of him. "Luftwaffe" is the German air force; "gobbledygoo" is gibberish or a childlike word that conveys her disdain for the German. This implies that the speaker feels that her father and his language made no sense to her. In this instance, she felt afraid of him and feared everything about him. She calls herself a Jew and her father a Nazi killer. He was Aryan, with blue eyes. He was something fierce and terrifying to the speaker. A Panzer-man means a German tank driver.

Stanza 10 Lines 46-50

“Not God but a swastika

So black no sky could squeak through.   

Every woman adores a Fascist,   

The boot in the face, the brute   

Brute heart of a brute like you.”

Sylvia’s father was never a Nazi. Yet, he was a male and she suffered oppressive male authority. In the second stanza, she compares her father to God, here she asserts that he was not God but a German swastika, another symbol of oppression.  The swastika was so big it blacked out the entire sky, or the speaker’s whole world. In the next lines, the speaker expresses the helplessness of women in general. Men are fascist, oppressive, and brute while women are oppressed victims. Yet, they are expected to adore their men. Perhaps she's saying that in relationships, women are dominated by men. To love a man you must be masochistic. This statement may also be more bitterly sarcastic than true. If it is meant as a statement of fact, it's criticizing women as well as the brutes they love.

Stanza 11 Lines 51-55

“You stand at the blackboard, daddy,   

In the picture I have of you,

A cleft in your chin instead of your foot   

But no less a devil for that, no not   

Any less the black man who”

The speaker describes a photo of her father, and in the picture, he's standing at a blackboard, probably in a classroom, teaching. Sylvia’s father was a biology professor. In the next 3 lines, the speaker compares her father to the devil as she notices the picture. Her father had a cleft on his chin. The devil is often depicted as some sort of animal, like a goat, that has hooves and not feet. Devil is often depicted with a cleft or indent in his feet. Like many other stanzas in the poem, this too ends with an enjambment, a poetic device in which an idea is split between two lines.

Stanza 12 Lines 56-60

“Bit my pretty red heart in two.

I was ten when they buried you.   

At twenty I tried to die

And get back, back, back to you.

I thought even the bones would do.”

In this stanza, the speaker expresses her deep affection for her father. While her father had a cleft on his chin, he was no less than the devil with a cleft on his feet. She loved him so much that losing him bit her heart in two. Though she loved him, he was no less a cruel man. She depicts her father as huge, evil, and black (opposite of light or innocence), while her heart is pretty red, and a victim. Sylvia’s father died when she was a little more than 8, however, in the poem she mentions she was ‘ten’ when her father died and was buried. Ten years later, when she was twenty, she attempted to die as well. She confesses that the reason she attempted suicide was to get back to her father. She thought that even if she was never to see him again in the afterlife, simply having her bones buried by his bones would be enough of a comfort to her. The speaker repeats ‘back’ three times (epizeuxis), the repetition here emphasizes her futile desperation.

Stanza 13 Lines 61-65

“But they pulled me out of the sack,   

And they stuck me together with glue.   

And then I knew what to do.

I made a model of you,

A man in black with a Meinkampf look”

Though she tried to kill herself to be with her father even in death, the doctors didn’t let her die, she was pulled back. Though she was broken and lost, the doctors helped her regain but someone who has been glued back together wouldn't ever feel quite right again. To fill the void, she tried to make a model of his father. She decided to have a substitute for her father, probably by finding a real man whom she imagines is like her father. This substitute, the other man is like her father. She doesn’t describe him as black but says that she is a man in black. Though this new man may not have a mustache, he appears like a Hitler, a Nazi (Meinkampf look).

Stanza 14 Lines 66-70

“And a love of the rack and the screw.   

And I said I do, I do.

So daddy, I’m finally through.

The black telephone’s off at the root,   

The voices just can’t worm through.”

This man is a sadist, wears black, and looks like Hitler and she succumbs to his torture because she longs for her father. The speaker finally fulfills her Electra complex.  Basically, the Electra complex is a theory that women seek men who are like their fathers. She marries him, confirming her wedding vows, "I do." So now, she no longer needs her father. She cuts off communication with him, the dead, here. The father and daughter can no longer communicate.

Stanza 15 Lines 71-75

“If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two——

The vampire who said he was you   

And drank my blood for a year,

Seven years, if you want to know.

Daddy, you can lie back now.”

The speaker again asserts her willingness to kill her father but now she says that she has killed two men. It is figurative. She’s killed anyone in reality, but killing here means ending ties, getting rid of, becoming independent, and free of oppression. But who is the second man she has killed? The second man is the man that she modeled after her father and married, and now they are divorced. This second man, her husband is like Hitler, and a vampire, who kept sucking her blood for a year, while they were going through the ordeal of separation. Then she mentions that she has been exploited by him for seven years. A vampire drinking blood is a metaphor for her husband who has been draining her life away, like a vampire would drain his victim's blood. Maybe she thought he was only cruel to her for one year, but upon further thought, she realizes that he's really been cruel for seven, which could be the totality of their marriage or acquaintance. After asserting that she's killed both her father and the man she married (who reminded her of him), she tells her father to lie back, or relax, or accept his defeat.

Stanza 16 Lines 76-80

“There’s a stake in your fat black heart

And the villagers never liked you.

They are dancing and stamping on you.   

They always knew it was you.

Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.”

The speaker is addressing the part of her father that is in herself, his memories, and her love for her – to lie back because he's dead. Her cruel father, the devil, Nazi, Hitler, a vampire, has lived past his physical death. He kept sucking her will to live but he must die for good now, or his effect on her must diminish. To do so, a stake has been pushed through his black heart, like a vampire should be killed. She has exorcized or mentally killed him properly this time. In this stanza, the speaker alludes to Bram Stoker’s Dracula in which vampires lived near little villages and hunted the villagers. As he is dead now, the villagers are dancing. They always knew that the vampire was her father, causing all sorts of problems and mysterious disappearances in the village.

In the last line, the speaker asserts her independence from the memories and gloominess because of her father.

In the whole poem of 80 lines, the speaker uses the word ‘Daddy’ six times, twice in the last line, making a stress that now she is free of the bad memories, now she won’t be exploited anymore.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Structure, Summary, Analysis

 

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Kubla Khan is one of the most popular and appreciated poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that he wrote in 1797. The poem was first published in 1816 in a pamphlet along with his other poems, Christabel, and The Pains of Sleep. The subtitle of Kubla Khan is "A Vision in a Dream". Coleridge also used another subtitle ‘A Fragment’. Coleridge saw a dream and when he woke up, he began writing his dream in poetic verse. However, he was interrupted before he could complete and by the time he returned to writing, he forgot the rest of the dream, hence, ‘A Fragment.’ The poem is offered as a dream, a poetic dream removed from any intellectual content, but offering the essence of a dream. The enchanting vivacity of its color, artistic beauty, and sweet harmony appear like a dream.

As a child, Samuel Taylor Coleridge got addicted to opium when he used an opium-based medicine Laudanum to get rid of pain due to an injury. He continued using Laudanum to treat depression and stress and failed to get rid of the addiction. One night in 1797, he was suffering pain and to ease it out, he took a dose of laudanum. He fell asleep and had a strange dream about a Mongol emperor named Kubla Khan. Coleridge dreamed that he was actually writing a poem in his sleep, and when he woke up after a few hours, he sat down to write the dream poem. Coleridge had this dream of Kubla Khan (or Kublai Khan) because before he fell asleep, he was reading Purchas, his Pilgrims, a book by Renaissance historian Samuel Purchas. The book briefly describes Xanadu, the summer capital of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. Coleridge mentioned this source of inspiration in his preface to Kubla Khan. Samuel Purchas never visited Xanadu but his description of Xanadu was based on the writings of Marco Polo who visited Xanadu in 1275.

The main theme of the poem is the interaction between nature and man as the speaker highlights the limits of man’s creativity. The poem celebrates the power of human creativity while also recognizing that such creativity is limited, fragile, and quickly lost.  The poem’s dreamlike, hallucinatory tone invites the reader to treat the speaker’s descriptions as an allegory for creativity and the human mind. In the poem, he explores the depths of dreams and creates landscapes that could not exist in reality. The “sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice” exemplifies the extreme fantasy of the world in which Kubla Khan lives. While the speaker describes Kubla Khan’s pleasure dome, not everything is pleasurable in the landscape. Along with the harmonious, beautiful, and pleasing aspects of nature, the poem also depicts the dangerous and threatening aspects of nature, which suggests that for Kubla Khan, pleasure constitutes not only natural beauty but also the violent aspects of nature. The speaker suggests that pleasure does not exclude violence, rather, pleasure emerges from the tension between beauty and violence, or chaos. In “Kubla Khan,” nature is characterized by a rough, dangerous terrain that can only be tamed by a male explorer such as Kubla Khan.

Structure of Kubla Khan:

The poem consists of 54 lines set in three stanzas of varying length. The first has 11 lines, the second has 25, and the third has 18. The poem doesn’t follow any strict metrical or rhyming pattern. The poet keeps jumping from one metrical pattern to another at different instances in the poem. However, Coleridge mostly used iambs in the poem, that is, most of the words in the poem are two-syllable units, in which the stress is placed on the second syllable. The poet used iambic trimeter, iambic pentameter, and iambic tetrameter. In the beginning stanza, the speaker describes the rushing of the river to the sea while offering a quick overview of the landscape hence, the lines appear fast-moving and short. The poem goes slow in the mid-section and the lines become longer. The speaker describes the meandering winds and the lines meanders too. In the last part, the speaker rushes to conclude and the lines become short again.

The poem has many rhyming patterns without any regularity or order. In general, metrical patterns and rhyming schemes are used in a poem to offer a specific structure, however, the poet used meter and rhyme in this poem to suggest disorder, chaos, and dreamlike effervescence. The varying rhyming schemes add to the mystical, otherworldly nature of the poem. Coleridge used extended metaphor, simile, alliteration, chiasmus, enjambment, allusion, antithesis, parallelism, and personification in the poem.

Summary of Kubla Khan:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-5

“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

   Down to a sunless sea.”

The speaker begins by mentioning Xanadu, the real name of a now-ruined site in China on the Mongolian Plateau, which encompasses the once capital city built by Kubla Khan (Kublai Khan), a 13th-century Mongol ruler. The speaker narrates how Kubla Khan ordered a stately pleasure house to be built by the side of the river Alph. Alph is not a real river, rather it declares the beginning of the poet’s vision, or dream. Coleridge chose to name this fictitious river Alph to symbolize nature as the greatest creator, the source of all creations. Alph is a contraction of the Greek alphabet ‘alpha’ which means first, or prime. The speaker describes how this fictional river Alph flowed underground for a long distance through unfathomable caves into a sea where the rays of the sun could not penetrate. The ‘measureless’ caves and ‘sunless sea’ symbolize darkness, or absence of light, or reason. This suggests that the speaker is interested in reason or nature, as much as he is interested in supernatural, mystical, sleep, or death.

Alliteration has been used in line 1 (the sound of K in Kubla Khan) and line 2 (the sound of d in dome and decree).

Stanza 2 Lines 6-11

“So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.”

After mentioning the ‘measureless’ caves and ‘sunless sea’, the speaker talks about the exact measurements required for fulfilling the order of Kubla Khan to make the ‘pleasure-dome.’ A piece of fertile land ‘twice five miles’ or 5 miles on the riverside and 5 miles on the other side was enclosed with walls and towers all around. There are gardens and snaky channels of water (sinuous rills) running through. Exotic trees grow here, bearing incense (aromatic fragrances). Ancient forests are present, too, with sunlit clearings.

The speaker offers a contrasting mixture of reality and imagination while describing the ‘pleasure-dome’ in Xanadu. The landscape encloses both, the rational, measurable, and sunlit spots of greenery, and the irrational, immeasurable, deep caves, sunless sea, and dark ancient forests.

In line 9, the speaker describes ‘incense-bearing’ trees blossoming recently in the man-made garden while in line 10, he describes the natural ‘ancient’ forests, suggesting the forests have been for a long time. This inversion of time, or contrast suggests Chiasmus.

Stanza 2 Lines 12-19

“But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:”

While describing the beautiful artificial garden, sunlit spots of greenery, and the natural ancient dark forests, the speaker notices the deep dark chasm (a deep crack or canyon in the ground). The river Alph cascades down the side of one of these hills, cutting a "deep chasm," or canyon, through it. The chasm symbolizes the unfathomable strength of the river flow. The chasm appears clear because the whole of the hill is covered in cedar trees while the canyon is the dividing line. The powerful and violent river adds to the mysterious aspect of the landscape which appears an enchanted place haunted by demons. The chasm adds to the savageness of the area. It is dark and the moon too is waning or diminishing. The place is haunted, dangerous, and beautiful too at the same time. It appears as if the beautiful woman is crying for her lover, who is a demon. The speaker is not introducing any new character in these lines, but he is describing the romantic aspect of this seemingly haunted, dangerous, yet attractive landscape where Kubla Khan has chosen to make his pleasure dome. The river continues to flow and hit the ground, deepening the chasm and as the water falls from the hill, the ground bears it while panting. Though a river, a fountain continuously flows, the speaker describes it as if a new mighty force is generated every new moment. Coleridge personifies the earth as a kind of "seething," "breathing" living thing. The rushing water becomes the sound of its "fast thick pants," as if the earth is really tired and defeated.

Stanza 2 Lines 20-27

“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 ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,”

The speaker continues to describe the river Alph bursting on the rocks as it falls down the hill. The river is bouncing off the rocks, which splatters the water and reminds the speaker of the clatter of hail, or grain raining down out of the air as it is being separated from the chaff. All this imagery offered by Coleridge is meant to incite a sense of awe and reverence towards the wild natural force symbolized by Alph.

As the water falls, it begins to ease and settle, and then the river "meander with a mazy motion." The whole imagery suggests that the water is falling fast and furiously down the hill into the chasm. The river is rushing down a deep canyon cut into a wooded hillside. It appears the hill is not too high and that is why the water bounces off rocks and creates a tumultuous, chaotic atmosphere, and then the river flows gently, meandering through wood and dale until it reaches the caves of immeasurable dark, deep caves. Momently, miles, meandering, mazy, motion, measureless, all shows alliteration.

Stanza 2 Lines 28-36

“And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

   The shadow of the dome of pleasure

   Floated midway on the waves;

   Where was heard the mingled measure

   From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!”

The river flows gently for a while and then it falls or sinks down into the ‘sunless’, ‘lifeless’ ocean. The speaker hasn’t mentioned the protagonist yet but now he does. He hears the echoing of the tumultuous river as it falls down the hill and then observes it sinking down the lifeless ocean and this reminds him of the violent wars of the past as he hears  "Ancestral voices prophesying war.” Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan. Obviously, he had seen a lot of violence and war. This voice, that Kubla Khan hears, suggests that chaos, tumult, or violence can be a necessity to create something grand such as the ‘pleasure-dome’ decreed by Kubla Khan.

The speaker then describes the ‘pleasure-dome’ which appears to cast a shadow on the river as it falls down the hill to the chasm to meet the lifeless ocean. The speaker says that the reflection of the pleasure-dome fell between the fountains mingling with the echoing sound coming out of the caves creating for the onlooker an illusion of really rhythmical music. The top of the building was warm because it was open to the sun while the low-lying chambers were chilled with never-melting ice. The poem continues to express the deep contrast between the dome and the caverns: Natural vs. man-made, above ground and below ground, symmetrical and irregular, measurable and immeasurable, sunny and frozen.

Stanza 3 Lines 37-44

“A damsel with a dulcimer

   In a vision once I 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 a deep delight ’twould win me,”

Coleridge mentioned in the preface that he was interrupted while writing the poem after he finished the first two stanzas. He was forced to go away from his writing desk and by the time he returned back, he had lost the memories of his vision. The speaker then mentions yet another dream he once had. In this vision, he introduces a muse, an Abyssinian damsel playing the dulcimer, an ancient instrument with strings that are plucked or hit with a mallet to produce music. The girl was playing music on her dulcimer while singing about Mount Abora. It is another fictional name (just like the river Alph) that can be considered as an allusion to Mount Amara, a place that John Milton mentioned in Paradise Lost. The music in his dream was so enchanting that he still remembers how it made him feel. Though he describes the music, he can't really get back to experiencing that intense feeling, yet he longs for it. He wishes to experience the same hypnotic effect of that music. Why does the speaker wish to experience the same enchanting effect of the music of the damsel with a dulcimer?

Stanza 3 Lines 45-54

“That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.”

The speaker wants to revive the music from his vision and bring it back to life because he believes that music is so enchanting and powerful that if he hears it again,  it will inspire him, and he will be able to create his own amazing things. He will make loud and long music and then he will reproduce the ‘pleasure-dome’ of Kubla Khan in the air. He wishes to recreate the sunny dome on the icy rocks and caves. All those who will hear the music will be able to see the pleasure-dome of the speaker too. However, despite the enchanting atmosphere of the ‘pleasure-dome’ it has its own dread and chaos. Those who could see it will warn others about the demon that haunts the dome. The onlookers will warn others while describing this strange terrifying creature with "flashing eyes" and "floating hair." They warn that anyone hearing the song of the Abyssinian damsel must perform a ritual to avoid the demon who has fed the honey-dew and has drunk the milk of Paradise. Who is this terrifying figure? Is he the same demon-lover for whom the woman in the speaker’s dream was wailing? Or is he the speaker, and hence, the poet Coleridge himself in effect of opium? Or maybe the demon is Kubla Khan, the violent grandson of violent Gengiz Khan, who has turned into a strange ferocious creature declaring war against the sane world.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!