Visions can be powerful. They can alter the course of your life by influencing your decisions and life choices. But what happens when you are in the grip of a vision that centres on one influential, arresting figure? What happens when you dream of Kubla Khan? Read on to find out!
Kubla Khan Overview
Written By | Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) |
Genre or form | Romantic poetry |
Meter | Inconsistent meter but includes iambic tetrameter, iambic pentameter and iambic trimeter |
Rhyme Scheme | Inconsistent rhyme scheme |
Poetic Devices | Alliteration, chiasmus, extended metaphor, personification |
Frequently noted imagery | Grand palace and surrounding lands |
Tone | Visceral and violent |
Key themes | Violence and creativity |
Meaning | The speaker describes a grand construction in a place called Xanadu. The imposing palace and its surrounding land belong to the Mongolian ruler, Kubla Khan. The speaker then describes a vision of a woman singing and playing the dulcimer, which inspires and enraptures the speaker. The speaker desires to recreate her song and fill Khan's pleasure palace with the sublime melody, expressing admiration and fear of the Khan. |
A dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument whose strings are plucked or beaten with small hammers to create a tune.
Romanticism is a movement that happened in reaction to the Enlightenment. Rejecting the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and rationality, Romanticism prized the individual, creative expression, and the sublime beauty of nature. All of these aspects may be identified in 'Kubla Khan.'
In 'Kubla Khan,' Coleridge speaks of a distant place and an exotic figure that would hold a great deal of interest for his readers who were unfamiliar with non-European persons and culture.
It is rumoured that the poem and its idea came to Coleridge in an opioid-induced dream. Upon waking, he penned the poem but was interrupted by a 'visitor from Porlock' who stayed for an hour. After the visitor's departure, Coleridge couldn't recall the poem, and it is rumoured to be unfinished. Scholars have often questioned the integrity of this tale.
Kubla Khan Critical Analysis
This section dives into the poem 'Kubla Khan.' You are advised to read the poem twice. In your first reading, pay close attention to details such as the rhymes, rhythm, word choice, and figures of speech. Consider the poem's broad strokes and overarching themes in your second reading.
Kubla Khan Poem
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 Summary
The poem begins with the speaker describing Kubla Khan's palace in Xanadu. They outline the grandeur of the 'pleasure dome' and the beauty of the palace surroundings. In the second stanza, the speaker continues describing the palace's land. Still, their description takes on violent undertones as they illustrate the waters fiercely flowing through the chasm and into the ocean.
Finally, in the third stanza, the speaker breaks away from describing Xanadu and reminisces about their visions. In them, the speaker witnesses a woman playing the dulcimer. The speaker hopes to recreate the melody and fill the palace in Xanadu with it. They then describe Kubla Khan as a ferocious, intimidating figure that has consumed the 'milk of Paradise.'
Kubla Khan structure
This section will investigate the structure of the poem 'Kubla Khan'.
Form
The poem 'Kubla Khan' does not conform to a strict form of poetry such as a ballad, sonnet, or ode. It consists of 3 stanzas, wherein the first stanza is 11 lines long, the second stanza is 25 lines long, and the third stanza is 18 lines long. Since the poem is not constrained by a strict form, rhyme scheme, or meter, it grants the poet total freedom in conveying the meaning as they desire it. This freedom from formal and structural restrictions of poetry also characterises the theme of creativity and imagination elaborated upon in the poem.
Meter
There is no strict meter or metrical pattern in the poem 'Kubla Khan.' However, the poet does use the iambic foot, with lines in the iambic pentameter, iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Since the meter regularly fluctuates, the poem appears fragmented, with some lines more prolonged than others. This disjointedness reflects the speaker's (and the poet's) vision, which is also fragmented and not entirely coherent.
An iamb is a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, for example, belong or destroy.
When the iambic foot occurs three times in a line, the line is said to be an iambic trimeter. When the iambic foot is repeated four times in a line, it is a line of iambic tetrameter. In the case of the iambic foot recurring five times in a line, it is said to be a line of iambic pentameter.
Rhyme scheme
In 'Kubla Khan,' rhyming patterns emerge in the poem but do not conform to a specific type of poem. For example, the first five lines in the first stanza have the rhyme scheme ABAAB. As the stanza progresses, there is somewhat an interlocking rhyme with the rhyme scheme continuing as follows: CCDBDB. The uneven yet rhyming lines of the poem add to its fragmented yet dreamy quality.
Kubla Khan poetic devices
This section looks into some of the poetic devices of the poem 'Kubla Khan.'
Alliteration
The poem 'Kubla Khan' employs alliteration in numerous instances.
Alliteration refers to the repetition of a sound in a poem that lends it a melodic quality.
For example, in the first five lines of the first stanza, there is an alliteration in each line. In line 1, the 'K' sound is repeated in 'Kubla Khan.' In line 2, the 'd' sound is repeated in '-dome decree,' thus marking instances of alliteration. Can you identify other examples of alliteration in the poem? How do these affect the reading of the poem? Does the poem seem to speed up or slow down as it progresses?
Chiasmus
There are two instances of chiasmus in the poem 'Kubla Khan.'
Chiasmus is a rhetorical device wherein the grammar of one line is inverted in the next while the concept or object is the same in both lines. Because of the mirroring effect of the chiasmus, it allows the poet to emphasise a particular idea.
An example of a chiasmus is when one says, 'patience will bring you peace' and 'contentment and composure go hand in hand.' Here, the concepts of peace and patience or endurance are repeated in both phrases but are inverted.
In the poem 'Kubla Khan,' the first instance of chiasmus is in lines 9 and 10:
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills
In the first line, the speaker mentions a place where trees began to grow. The 'where' identifies the place, and the blossoming of trees marks the action at a specific time. In the following line, these concepts are inverted, wherein the time is described with the word 'ancient,' indicating that the trees have been 'here' for a long time. This inversion marks the chiasmus.
The second instance of chiasmus in the poem is in lines 50 and 53. You will notice that here, the words are not repeated. Chiasmus does not require the repetition of words. Instead, identify what the subject and object of the first line are, and how these are inverted in the second.
Extended metaphor
The extended metaphor in the poem 'Kubla Khan' can be found in the third stanza.
An extended metaphor refers to a metaphor that is delivered over multiple lines or sentences. A metaphor is a literary device where one object is substituted for another to convey a deeper meaning. For example, 'her hair is night,' is a metaphor that indicates that the subject's hair is as dark as the night.
In 'Kubla Khan,' the extended metaphor can be found in lines 45-54. This extended metaphor ties in with the theme of creativity.
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.
Here, the speaker describes their vision of Xanadu and of Kubla Khan. They are inspired by the song and melody of the woman playing the dulcimer to recreate the palace's grandeur in Xanadu and the ferocious, mysterious figure of Kubla Khan. This reflects the creative imagination and visions of poets and artists who are inspired to create great or perhaps mysterious works of art. Furthermore, the 'milk of Paradise' may reference opium as Coleridge 'hallucinated' the poem after consuming opium.
Personification
The poem 'Kubla Khan' includes examples of personification.
Personification is a poetic device wherein non-human objects are given human attributes.
One instance of personification in 'Kubla Khan' is found in line 7, where the walls and towers are 'girdled,' meaning encircled by 'miles of fertile ground.'
Can you identify other instances of personification in the poem? How do these enhance the images evoked by the poet's description?
Kubla Khan themes
The main themes of the poem 'Kubla Khan' are violence and artistic creativity.
After their initial description of the sublime beauty of Xanadu and 'pleasure dome,' the speaker's description of the palace and its surroundings grows increasingly tumultuous and violent. This is mirrored by the change in the poem's pace, as the reader is assaulted by images of water rushing through the canyon, crashing against rocks and finally flowing into the sea.
The speaker highlights these violent images with powerful, evocative language, indicating that there is beauty and pleasure in destruction. The violence of the words and images builds up towards the climax, with Kubla Khan cutting a mysterious yet arresting figure, who the speaker warns against.
The final stanza, including the extended metaphor, is also a nod to the visions that grip poets and artists to create wondrous works of art. The hallucinatory tones of the final stanza draw the link between artistic inspiration and the human mind. Here, the speaker and the poet, i.e., Coleridge, seemingly become one, alluding to Coleridge dreaming up the poem in an opioid-induced sleep.
Kubla Khan 1816 - Key Takeaways
- The poem 'Kubla Khan' is written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
- 'Kubla Khan' is a romantic poem.
- 'Kubla Khan' does not conform to an established form, rhyme scheme, or metrical pattern.
- The poem 'Kubla Khan' includes alliteration, chiasmus, extended metaphor, and personification.
- The main themes of the poem 'Kubla Khan' are violence and artistic creativity.
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