Keats and Coleridge in Narnia!

I love how it seemed everything we discussed today seemed to lead right to Narnia. First there was the description in Ode to a Nightingale:

“Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.”

The first thing that popped to mind was the picture in Voyage of the Dawn Treader through which Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace enter the Narnian Sea. And to Edmund and Lucy, Narnia was a land they wished to be in, but one that they despaired seeing for a long time. To Eustace, it was a silly fairy tale his childish cousins had made up. Once he had visited and seen for himself the wonders of Narnia though, he too began long for the beautiful, fantastical land.

Kubla Khan seemed to me a Narnia in and of itself. It was a fantastical land, with fantastical inanimate objects, that weren’t so inanimate. Standing on the sidelines today, waiting to call “Beware” to Kubla Khan, I was able to appreciate the fantastical elements of the poem, the magic that was penned. And the fact that every inanimate object, and animate objects, were cast today, made it that much more intriguing.

These two poems make me wonder how much influence the poets had on C.S. Lewis when the Narnia series was penned. Perhaps the line in Ode to a Nightingale was the inspiration behind the picture of a ship that swallows three children whole. Perhaps the landscape in Narnia has its roots in the fantastical land penned by Coleridge. Perhaps they are all completely unrelated and the fact they are so similar is a complete coincidence. I don’t think we’ll ever really know, but it’s a fun thing to mull over.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled programming, procrastinating when I should be writing my paper…

I hope everyone enjoys their Fall Break and come back refreshed and ready to get back to work! Until next time,

~Meghan

P.S. Commented on Danielle's Too Busy to Title This