The Completion of Kubla Khan [Paperback]

Julio Delatorre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 1997

Here is the completion of the most famous unfinished poem in English literature: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's KUBLA KHAN. In 1797, awakening from an opium dream, Coleridge managed to write down the first 54 lines of a poem when he was interrupted by a visitor on business. When he returned to his work, he found that he had forgotten the rest of the dream. The fragment has remained an enigma until now. Poet, Julio Delatorre has vividly recaptured the language and the dream some 200 years later. Four original illustrations by Frank Frazetta accompany this unique, calligraphed work.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Julio Delatorre's verse is powerful and evocative!" R.T. -- R.T.

About the Author

Julio Delatorre was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 25, 1938 but was raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was acclaimed Class Poet of the 1955 graduating class of Boys High School. He graduated cum laude from the City College of New York in 1960 with Honors in English for creative writing. At CCNY he was also editor of the college humor magazine, and an outstanding athlete. He was the first Rhodes Scholar candidate from his college in some thirty years. He attended graduate school at Stanford University. After a long battle with cancer, Julio Delatorre died in 1976 before he could see his work published. Some twenty years after his death-and some 200 years after the Coleridge fragment-this book finally completes the cycle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: NOVA CLASSICS (March 25, 1997)
• ISBN-10: 0965681904
• ISBN-13: 978-0965681902
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 7.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,065,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MORE THAN A BOOK OR A POEM, THIS IS A LITERARY EVENT., June 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Completion of Kubla Khan (Paperback)

The nerve of Julio Delatorre! Is nothing sacred? This could well be your reaction upon finding that someone has completed a poem the famous Samuel Taylor Coleridge left unfinished some 200 years ago. But, whatever your reaction, I strongly urge you to set such thoughts aside and enjoy this work for what it is, an extraordinary literary creation from begining to end.

Who could have known where Coleridge was going with his poem? At the time even he couldn't remember, having dreamed the epic in its entirety, only to lose the thread early in the writing due to an interruption. As a result, we were left with a mere fragment of less than a hundred lines. The completed poem is well over 300 lines and the reader will be hard-pressed to know where Delatorre picked up and Coleridge left off.

All of that aside, I find the work to be tremendously moving. I particularly enjoy reading it aloud and I must admit I have not yet been able to get through it without a severe emotional upheaval; the beauty and power of it makes me weep - every time.

And then, to complement in kind the richness of the verse, there are the exquisite illustrations by the singular master of the genre, Frank Frazetta.

However this work came to be, whether through magic, raw skill, or some other explanation, or all of the above, what is obvious is that we are left with a sublime treasure that "bolts forward with hurricane energy" to its profound and startling conclusion.

I do recommend that the glossary of uncommon words in the back of the book be perused prior to reading, for enhanced enjoyment and understanding of the poem.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not At All Like The Original, July 5, 2002

By 

J. Fogarty (Saint Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Completion of Kubla Khan (Paperback)

I bought this book based on some of the earlier Amazon.com glowing reviews. I'm not going to say that they were wrong, because appreciation of poetry is subjective. I will offer up, however, that I had a different impression entirely. Delatorre's additional verses have a monotonous regularity of rhythm (as opposed to the sensuous variation of meter in Coleridge's verse) and seem wholey devoted to moralistic sermonizing. This "completion" of Coleridge's poem is not in the least a fulfillment of the almost painfully beautiful images that make up the original Kubla Khan.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Completion of Kubla Khan by Julio Delatorre, August 12, 2001

By 

"snapping1" (Newton, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Completion of Kubla Khan (Paperback)

My original rating of this book was a "3" because it was not what I had expected, but I changed it to a "4" out of respect for the author. The completion of the poem itself seemed out of sync with the original, but obviously it WOULD have been, since the authors were separated by nearly two centuries. I suppose that, having been enthralled with "Kubla Khan" since my freshman year in college, that I would have been hard on any author who attempted to complete such an exquisite poem as this one. I found that Delatorre's opinion about what happened AFTER the poem's original ending was far different from my opinion. I guess I expected something more fantastic and/or supernatural. I would say, though, that Delatorre's preface was both humble and inspirational and made the book worth keeping and his completion worth reading again.