Through Chris Lott's recent reminiscence on poetry, which was referenced on Twitter, I discovered a new blog post by Gardner Campbell, an
professor of English lit and adventurer in new media. Mr. Campbell has made available
an audio
file of his reading of several Samuel Taylor Coleridge poems,
including "Kubla Kahn".
I myself have a working memorization of "Kubla
Kahn", and have recited the poem aloud dozens of times over the last
dozen years. It's not an easy poem, but it gets easier each time you
read it. And because I don't recall anyone else ever reading this poem
to me aloud, I've tried various oral interpretations of the sometime
befuddling language. Particularly curious to me was the following:
And all who heard should see
them there,
And all who should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
You've probably noticed what I notice every time I read it: the "who"
in the second (quoted) line is confusing. For a long time I've read it
as if there were a comma after "should", making the "all who should"
refer back to the "heard" or "see". This invisible comma also causes
an awkward pause which I've capitalized on to catch my breath before
bellowing "…cry, Beware! Beware!"
In terms of comprehending Coleridge's unusual phrasing in this line, I'd blamed the
anomaly on archaic usage, or else opium.
Those who know this poem are already giggling at me, for my memorization is erroneous. Listening
to Mr. Campbell's reading, I listened anxiously for his interpretation
of that line, and was stunned to discover my memorization of "Kubla"
embeds an invention: the extra (and confusing) "who".
The Old Main Amphitheater at
USUI have to wonder
if it wasn't a bad text that incurred this extra "who" in my long-term memory. In retrospect, I imagine I
memorized it off of an early Project Gutenberg text from the mid 90s
while I was in college, and a handful of friends and I would print off
poems to compile our custom reading lists for oral delivery at the Old
Main Hill amphitheater.
So by happy chance Gardner Campbell's eloquent reading has enlightened me to the error in my memory, and we have yet another instance of Twitter as a catalyst for learning.
P.S. I can't help but notice that, in listening to Mr. Campbell's
reading, the line "As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing"
still makes me chuckle after all these years. Apparently C.S. Lewis wondered to
his pupils about the pants in question:
John Dougill's Oxford in English Literature: The Making,
and Undoing, of 'The English Athens' notes that Lewis's pupil John
Betjeman complained peevishly
that his tutor had forever ruined Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' by wondering
whether the 'pants' in the line … were made of wool or fur.
Based on the earth's reaction, I say wool. Or else chain mail.
