Kubla Khan

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Resource Person:Muhammad Sharjeel(M.Phil Eng Lit)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the first poets of the Romantic Movement. Poetry of
the Romantic Movement was characterized by a more conversational tone. Romantic poets,
such as Coleridge, often explored the themes of human emotion and nature. Coleridge was born
to a middle-class family in 1772 and studied at Jesus College, Cambridge before settling into a
somewhat turbulent life as a poet, journalist, and speaker.
In "Kubla Khan", Coleridge describes his imagined version of the 13th century Mongolian ruler
Kublai Khan's palace. The poem's speaker compares the natural beauty and peaceful setting at
the palace with the war and chaos of the outside world. As the poem progresses, Coleridge
alludes to his own inability to finish the poem.
Kubla Khan is a poem of pure romance. All the romantic associations are concentrated in this
short poem. It contains many sensuous phrases and pictures like bright gardens, incense bearing
trees laden with blossoms, sunny spots of greenery etc. Then again the description of the
Abyssinian maid is very romantic in character:
Supernaturalism is also a romantic quality. Kubla Khan is a supernatural poem, based on a
dream. There are images and expressions in it which are supernatural in character and create an
atmosphere of mystery and awe: for example 'caverns measure-less to man', 'a sunless sea', 'that
deep romantic chasm' etc. Kubla Khan is a triumph of supernaturalism. It transports us out of the
world of everyday life into a world of wonder and romance.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
   Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
   The shadow of the dome of pleasure
   Floated midway on the waves;
   Where was heard the mingled measure
   From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

   A damsel with a dulcimer

   In a vision once I saw:
   It was an Abyssinian maid
   And on her dulcimer she played,
   Singing of Mount Abora.
   Could I revive within me
   Her symphony and song,
   To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Kubla Khan Analysis
Explanation
Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
In these lines from the poem Kubla Khan, the poet Samuel Tayler Coleridge narrates how Kubla
Khan ordered a stately pleasure house to be built and what was subsequently done to get it built.
Kubla Khan ordered the erection of a magnificent pleasure palace on the banks of the sacred
river ‘Alph’ which flowed underground for a long distance through unfathomable caves into a
sea where the rays of the sun could no penetrate.
Accordingly, for this purpose, a plot of fertile land covering ten miles was enclosed with walls
and towers all around. On one side of this land, there were gardens full of aromatic trees where
sweet-smelling flowers bloomed. There were meandering streams flowing through these gardens
making the place exceedingly beautiful. On the other side of the land were thick primeval forests
as old as the hills within which there were plots of grassy land warmed by the rays of the sun.
Thus, Coleridge creates a vaguely but suggestive romantic palace. “In reading it “, Swinburne
observes about these artistic touches, “we are       wrapped into that paradise where music and
color and perfume are one; where you hear the hues and see the harmonies of heaven.”
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
These are the most famous lines of Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan and have been highly
appreciated for the effortless adaptation of the sound and rhythm to the various parts of the
descriptions. While describing the beautiful grounds, the poet seems to have been attracted by
the most remarkable mysterious chasm which stretched across the hill covered with cedar trees.
It simply defied all descriptions and was a highly romantic place and wore a mysterious aspect. It
seemed an enchanted place haunted by demons and fairies and frequented by a disappointed
lady-love weeping for her demon-lover under the light of the fading moon.
The vagueness and mystery of this place suggested witchcraft and its practice as they are
associated with such surroundings. From this chasm, a fountain gushed forth every moment so
violently that the trembling earth round about appeared like a man breathing hard while dying. It
momentarily threw up huge fragments of rock which tossed up and then fell to the ground in all
directions like hailstones from the sky or like chaff flying about when crushed with a flail.
From this chasm also sprang up the sacred river, Alph which flowed with a zig-zag course for
five miles through forest and valley and then fell into the calm and tranquil ocean through the
unfathomable caverns. As it fell into the ocean, it created a great roaring sound. In the midst of
this uproarious noise, Kubla Khan heard the voices of his ancestors prophesying that the time
was near when he should indulge in ambitious wars. In the pleasure-house, Kubla Khan became
addicted to luxury so his ancestors urged him to shake off his lethargic and luxurious life and be
ready to the life of adventures and wars.
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
These lines further describe the charms of displayed by the pleasure palace of the emperor at
Zanadu. The pleasure-house of Kubla Khan was a very romantic and beautiful palace. The poet
here says that the reflection of the pleasure-dome fell between the fountains mingling with the
echoing sound coming out of the caves created for the onlooker an illusion of really rhythmical
music. The palace was the construction of rare design and a wonderful triumph of architecture as
it combined in itself a summer and a winter palace. The top of the building was warm because it
was open to the sun while the low-lying chambers were kept cool by ice which never melted.
In the next lines, Coleridge introduces a beautiful girl brought from a distant country, to
complete the picture of the romantic atmosphere. He says that once in his dream he saw a girl
who was brought from Abyssinia. She was singing of her native land Abyssinia and Mount
Abora. The poet means to suggest that her song showed homesickness. She had been brought
from her country to a distant land China and wanted to return home and to play freely and
happily once more with other girls of her country.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
These lines conclude the unfinished poem. When the poet saw an Abyssinian girl singing a
melodious song and producing an exquisite melody on her dulcimer in the pleasure palace of
Kubla Khan, his imagination was seized by the great power of music. In these lines, he says that
if he could recall or learn the ravishing music of the Abyssinian girl, he would build the beautiful
palace of Kubla Khan in the air. He would be filled with his swelling notes.
Helped by his quickened imagination he would be able to reconstruct the whole scene. The long
practice of this divinely inspired music will enable him to reproduce the whole palace in the air
as beautiful and ethereal as the palace of Kubla Khan together with its sunny dome and caves of
ice.
His inspired imagination would create “a willing suspension of disbelief” and the readers would
feel that the entire beauty of the palace has been captured for them. They would be struck with
awe created by his flashing eyes, steaming hair, and lips.
His frenzied condition would frighten them so much that they would guard themselves against
coming into close contact with him. In order to save themselves from being infected by his
magical charm, they would confine him within a magical circle three times.
The poet has tasted the manna and nectar of divine poetic inspiration and has developed a
catching influence of music in his looks. In order to save themselves from the effect of his
charm, they would shut their eyes.

Summary of Kubla Khan

Kubla Khan summary gives a brief description of the famous romantic poem, Kubla Khan. The
poem tells us about the kingdom of Kubla Khan. We learn about a mythical city known as Xanadu.
The poem describes Kubla Khan as a powerful ruler who has great command. His authoritativeness
lies in the fact that he can order for a pleasure dome to be built on merely one order. This pleasure
dome is no less than a miracle as it comprises of caves of ice.
What’s miraculous is that it is present in a sunny area. Thus, Kubla Khan summary describes this
rare dome. Moreover, it also beautifully illustrates the remote land cape of Xanadu. The poem
comprises of green sunny spots, bright gardens, blossom-laden trees and much more. You can
imagine a beautiful vision of the land through the mere description of it in Kubla Khan summary.
Kubla Khan” Summary
In a place called Xanadu, the Mongolian leader Kubla Khan ordered his servants to construct an
impressive domed building for pleasure and recreation on the banks of the holy river
Alph, which ran through a series of caves so vast that no one could measure them, and then down
into an underground ocean. So they created a space with 10 miles of fertile earth surrounded by
walls and towers. And in it there were gardens with sunny little streams and fragrant trees, as
well as very old forests with sunny clearings in the middle.

But, oh, how beautiful was that deep, impressive gorge that cut through the green hill, between
the cedar trees! It was such a wild place! A place so sacred and bewitching that you might expect
it to be haunted by a woman crying out for her satanic lover beneath the crescent moon. And out
of this gorge, with its endlessly churning river, a geyser would sometimes erupt, as though the
ground itself were breathing hard. This geyser would send shards of rock flying into the air like
hail, or like grain scattered as it is being harvested. And as it flung up these rocks, the geyser
would also briefly send the water of the holy river bursting up into the air. The holy river ran for
five miles in a lazy, winding course through woods and fields, before it reached the incredibly
deep caves and sank in a flurry into the much stiller ocean. And in the rushing waters of the
caves, Kubla Khan heard the voices of his ancestors, predicting that war would come. The
shadow of Kubla Khan's pleasure palace was reflected by the waves, and you could hear the
sound of the geyser mingling with that of the water rushing through the caves. This was truly a
miraculous place: Khan's pleasure palace was both sunny and had icy caves.

In a vision, I once saw an Ethiopian woman play a stringed instrument and sing about a mountain
in Ethiopia. If I could recreate within myself the sound of her instrument and her song, it would
bring me so much joy that I would build Kubla Khan’s pleasure palace in the sky above me: that
sun-filled dome, those caves full of ice! And everyone who heard the song would look up and
see what I had built, and they would cry out: “Be careful! Look at his wild eyes and crazy
hair! Make a circle around him three times and refuse to look at him: he has eaten the food of the
gods and drunk the milk of Heaven!”

Major Themes in “Kubla Khan”: The poem comprises diverse themes. True to its romantic
tradition, it presents various versions of the reality of the palace the poet has presented through
his imagination. The second theme is of the man and his significance in the natural world as
depicted by Kubla Khan himself. The concept of time as well as the permanence of art, too are
its other thematic strands presented by Coleridge.
Analysis of Literary Devices in “Kubla Khan”

literary devices such as similes, personification, and irony are very important elements of any

literary text. These devices bring richness and clarity to the text. In addition, the use of literary
devices makes the text life like so that a reader can use imagination like “Kubla Khan.” Here is
the analysis of some literary devices used in this poem.

1)    Simile: Simile is a figure of speech in which two things with different qualities are
compared to present a vivid description of an object or a person. There is one simile used in the
poem in line 21 such as “huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail.” The fragments have been
compared to pieces of hailstorm to show their impacts.

2)    Personification: Personification is attribution of human qualities to an inanimate object.

Coleridge has used personification in the first stanza where he states, “as if this earth in fast thick
pant was breathing,” comparing the earth to a breathing human being. He also has personified
rocks in line 23 as “the dancing rocks.” Dancing is a human characteristic, but the poet has
attributed this quality to rocks. 

3)    Metaphor: There are two metaphors in the poem. First is used in the twelfth line where it is
“deep romantic chasm.” Here the “deep romantic chasm” represents the creativity and deep
imagination of the poet. Second is used in the last stanza such as “woman wailing for her demon-
lover.” Here “wait” metaphorically represents the desire for love.

4)    Synecdoche: Synecdoche is a literary device in which a part of something represents the

whole. Coleridge has used synecdoche in line 19 such as “A mighty fountain momentarily was
forced” where the fountain has been used for the waterfall or the streamlet that is coming out of a
gorge with force.

5)    Assonance: Assonance is a repetition of the vowel sounds in the same line such as the
sounds of /e/ in “deep delight”, “A stately pleasure-dome decree” and /a/ sound in “Through
caverns measureless to man.”

6)    Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds such as /d/ sound in “deep

delight”, /t/ in “fast thick pants breathing” and /f/ sound in “from the fountain.”

7)    Apostrophe: Apostrophe is a device used to call somebody or something from afar. Here

the poet has used an apostrophe to warn someone “Beware! Beware!” which means that he is
calling some anonymous person to be on the alert.

9)    Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines
of verse such as the use of /s/ sound in “sympathy and song.”

The analysis shows that Coleridge’s use of literary devices has helped him present a complete
and luxurious picture of the palace of Kubla Khan and the beauty in that realm.
Analysis of Poetic Devices in “Kubla Khan”
Although most of the poetic devices share the same qualities with literary devices, there are some
which can only be used in poetry. The analysis of some of the poetic devices is given below.
1)    Stanza: The poem is structured in two parts and four stanzas. The poet has applied the mix
of tetrameter and pentameter to these undefined stanzas.
2)    Rhyme Scheme: As the poem does not follow any organized structure, hence
the rhyme scheme varies from stanza to stanza.
3)    Rhyming Iambic Meter: It means that meter has no regular feet in each line. There are four
or five meters in some lines such as the first two lines are in tetrameter, but lines 8 and 9 are in
pentameter.
4)    Repetition: There is a repetition of the phrase “pleasure doom” that enhances the musical
quality of the poem.
5)    Refrain: The lines that are repeated at some distance in the poems are called refrain. The
words “caverns measureless to man” are repeated and used as a refrain in lines 4 and 29 with the
same words.
This analysis shows that the poet has made skillful use of refrains, meter, and stanza forms to
reach his goal to describe a dream.
Discuss Kubla Khan as a Romantic Poem
Kubla Khan as a Romantic Poem

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is one of the greatest romantic poets and his Kubla Khan is one

of those three poems which have kept his name in the front of the greatest English poets.
The poem is the shortest but in some ways the most remarkable of the three. Kubla
Khan is a romantic poem. It is a concentration of romantic features. The romantic qualities
of the poem are as follow:
 
Romantic Elements in the Poem Kubla Khan:
Coleridge's Kubla Khan, a celebratory poem is romantic in its tone. Supernaturalism is a
romantic quality and Kubla Khan is a triumph of supernaturalism. It is a supernatural poem
based upon an opium-induced dream. It transports us out of the world of everyday life into
a world of enchantment. 'The woman wailing for her demon lover' and 'the ancestral voices
prophesying war are obviously supernatural occurrences. The tumultuous rise of the river
Alph from a deep romantic chasm is also given an unmistakable supernatural touch. The
caverns measureless to man, the intermittent bust of water from the fountain, the sunless sea—
these are all supernatural touches which create an atmosphere of mystery and fear. But what
is remarkable about Kubla Khan is the convincing presentation of the supernatural
elements. Reference to distant lands and far off places emphasise the romantic character of
the poem. The very first line transports us to the distant city of Xanadu, the summer capital of
the great oriental King Kubla Khan, the son of the great Genghiz Khan. These names unfamiliar
and brought with the spirit of mystery, lend to the poem an enchantment of their own. The
same purpose is served by the allusion to the Abyssinian girl singing of Mount Abora in the
second part of the poem. 
Kubla Khan abounds in suggestive phrases and lines capable of evoking mystery. The
description of the romantic chasm, the source of the river Alph is romantic in spirit. Perhaps
the most suggestive lines in the poem refer to the woman waiting for her demon lover. 
"A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon lover." 
Equally suggestive are these lines 
"And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war." 
Romantic poetry is also characterized by sensuousness. There are sensuous phrases and
pictures in Kubla Khan. The bright gardens, the incense bearing trees with sweet blossoms,
the sunny spots of greenery, the rock vaulting like rebounding hall, the sunless caverns—all
these vivid pictures give the poem a sensuous touch so characteristic of romantic poetry. We
find another sensuousness in the vision of the Abyssinian maid playing on a dulcimer and
singing a sweet song.
The picture of the divinely inspired poet in the closing lines of the poem is typically
romantic. No writer imbued with the classical spirit could have written these lines where the
poet is presented as a divinely inspired creator. The poet achieves an awesome
personality of whom the ordinary person must beware. The poet says:
 
“Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
                     For he on honey-dew bath fed,
                    And drunk the milk of paradise,"
Above all, the dream-like atmosphere of Kubla Khan makes it an exquisite romantic poem. It
was not only composed in a dream but even exhibits a dream-like movement. The poem is
work of pure fancy, the result of sheer imagination. In this respect it is a romantic poem. 

To sum up, we may say that Kubla Khan fulfills the characteristics of a romantic poem.
We find the romantic qualities in the poem such as supernaturalism, references to remote
places , suggestiveness, sensuousness, poetic creation, dream like quality and so on. These
romantic elements make Kubla Khan a romantic poem