Comparative Analysis of the Themes of "kubla Khan" and "ode on a Grecian Urn"

Bharat Paudel, 76 'B'

Yadab Adhikari

Ideas And Themes In Poetry

April 22, 2018

Comparative Analysis of the Themes of "Kubla Khan" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn"               

The poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is written in a response to a vision of a dream. It deals with the luxurious house of a ruler of the Mongol dynasty King Kubla Khan from thirteen century. This poem is basically about the human life and its relation with the art and nature. The poem "Ode on Grecian Urn" by John Keats is highly centred on the theme of art, beauty, love and nature. The Poet ponders into the ideal world and praise the beauty of art throughout the poem. Although both poems originating from the poets' inspiration from the historical figure, the two poems convey different message through their respective symbols and imageries. While Coleridge focuses on the process of creating romantic poem, Keats indulge in emotion and expresses his feelings by carefully observing the details of the Grecian urn.

        In terms of form and structure, the poem Kubla khan is made up of a total of fifty four lines with fluctuating meter from tetrameter to pentameter. In the beginning section of the poem, the poet provides us a quick description of the setting and explains details about the geography and nature. When the writer shifts his tones throughout the poem, he also changes the pattern and shape accordingly. The irregular type of form and pattern in the poem reflects us the theme of imperfection of the art. The poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" consists of five stanzas with ten lines in each stanza. The first seven lines in each stanza consistently follow the rhyme scheme of ababcde. However, the last three lines of the stanzas are not in the regular format. Even though, the language that Keats used in the poem is attractive and artistic.

        In Kubla Khan, the poet "Samuel Taylor Coleridge" expresses the eternity of nature and its everlasting relationship with human beings. As the poem starts, the speaker describes the geography of Xanadu and he explains the force and beauty of nature and surroundings. As we go from the dome to the river and then from the gardens to the sea, we can feel the sense of  interaction between man and nature. Coleridge furthermore contrasts between dome and caverns as natural vs. man-made, above ground and below ground, symmetrical and irregular, sunny and frozen to show the perpetuity of nature in the poem. Similarly, In Ode on a Grecian Urn,  the poet "John Keats" describes the greatness of nature and art using different imageries. According to the poet, the real nature lies in the art as he believes that the world of urn never changes. Even the branches of  trees never lose their leaves because of the spring world of the art. In the real natural world, all of these situations would involve an end-trees must always lose their leaves and the spring must move into summer. In this sense, Keats is trying to show the perfectness of nature through the symbol of  an urn.        

        Moreover, In the  Coleridge's poem, he begins the line introducing the fancy palace of Kubla Khan as "stately pleasure dome decree". He describes the geography and space of the palace as "twice five mile of the fertile ground". Similarly, he says that  palace was fully protected by the walls and towers surrounded by the green forest. In this way, the speaker of the poem shows the process by which art is developed and how it is destroyed. Poet finally comes to the point that human construction is temporary as it can be demolished with the motion of time . On the other hand, in Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats creates the romantic temperament through contemplating in the beauty of Grecian art. According to the poet, the "Urn" represent the innocent world and immortality. He says that, the people and object displaying on an urn never suffer from the hardships that come with the changes in their world. He says that real world is all about misery and pain. Keats  believes that powerful truth lies in an art. At the ending line of the poem, the writer mentions a powerful line about the beauty and truth. He believes that truth and beauty manifest in the art and life in different ways. Keats sees immortality and perfection of life within an art. To talk about the human life, Coleridge basically emphasizes on the close relationship between man and nature throughout his poem. He believes that life is fully depends on the nature and human being is a part of the nature.  He says that nature is beautiful and eternal while life is as temporary as the King's palace. According to him, human beings and their creations cannot sustain for long due to the time and motion. However, In Ode on a Grecian urn,  John Keats goes through the truth and beauty of art in order to praise the greatness of nature in his whole poem. He says that art seems permanent in compare with the actual human life. In addition, the writer describes that, the people and things depicted on the urn have eternal longevity of life like the nature. Hence, Keats is trying to create a hierarchy of nature, art and life putting human life on the bottom side. However, both of the writers accepts the inevitable of death and permanence of nature in their poems.