This was a bit of a cheat in a way, as I’ve had a couple of lines of Coleridge’s poem stuck in my head (flashing eyes, floating hair) since reading Kubla along with Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency(in which, as fans know, it plays a pivotal role) at University. Picking a piece which rhymes and scans certainly aids the learning process, which is probably why almost all oral literature has embedded mnemonic devices of some sort, whether ancient Anglo-Saxon alliteration (see what I did there?) or the internal and end-rhymes found in a lot of traditional poetry.
One of the first things I noticed about learning the piece was my tendency to paraphrase - a deadly sin when it comes to poetry, as every word is chosen (hopefully) with more than usual care, and “was” for “were”, “enclosing” for enfolding” etc. is simply not acceptable. So I trained myself out of those fairly early on: it helped that I carried my slim volume in my bag everywhere, so that I could check the original text any time and didn’t entrench my mistakes. I did most of my learning and muttering on public transport: no-one batted an eyelid. I had it pretty much down within a week, and spent the subsequent time cementing it firmly in my head. Because it’s a relatively short piece (two or three minutes beginning to end) it became a sort of little mantra I could repeat when I had a lacuna in my daily life - lying in the bath, waiting for a tube, waiting for the kettle to boil…
The second thing I noticed was the structure and tricks of the poem itself: not only Coleridge’s repeated use of “‘mid” and “momently” - quite close together, as well - but also the breaks and repetitions in the poem, which are sometimes convenient (momently) and sometimes for effect (chasm … caverns measureless to man). I also had an annoying blind spot for what came after the thresher’s flail line - partly because it was at the bottom of a page and I found the next line hard to visualise.
Finally - even when you think you’ve got something off by heart, it’s still surprisingly tough to recite at the drop of a hat! I could do it perfectly in the bus queue, but when it came to recording it I kept drying and/or making stupid little mistakes (in one case in the first line - take 3 involved me saying “sacred pleasure dome” instead of “stately pleasure dome”, shortly followed by “bollocks”). This is what happens when actors go “off book” - the lines are there, but it’s like they’re balancing on a tightrope, and the slightest change or upset can tumble them out of your head. Even trying to emote the lines or give them a different emphasis can scare the words away. I’ve always respected what actors (and performance poets) do, learning their words upside down and inside out - but now I appreciate it much more! And the poem too, of course.
It’s great to have Kubla in my head now as a party piece. Learning it wasn’t nearly as hard as I’d thought, much more fun, and I’m really glad I did it. Thanks Steve!
[Recital by Katy Darby]
