KUBLA KHAN

KUBLA KHAN SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Explanation:

Lines 1-2

In these lines, Coleridge introduces Kubla Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire in China during the 13th century A.D. His kingdom symbolized wealth and mystery to Europeans ever since Marco Polo first wrote about his travels there; throughout the poem, Coleridge builds a sense of the exotic and mysterious. The second line emphasizes Kubla Khan's power as he orders a fitting palace for himself. It also hints at one of the many contrasts which will appear in the poem as the word, stately, conveying the grandeur and majesty of Kubla Khan's creation, is paired with the idea of a pleasure dome, a place of luxury and leisure. The opening images of the poem bear striking similarities to the following quotation from Purchas' Pilgrimage, which Coleridge said he was reading immediately before he drifted into his deep sleep:

In Xamdu did Cublai Can builde a stately Palace, encompassing sixteene miles of plaine ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant springs, delightful Streames, and all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the middest thereof a suptuous house of pleasure.

As you look through the first eight lines, notice the words that Coleridge has borrowed. It is also interesting to notice the changes which he made. For example, Xanadu fits the poem's iambic tetrameter, where Xamdu would not.

Line 3

Khan chooses to build this dome on the site of a sacred river, which Coleridge calls the Alph. Although no river with this name exists, the name itself suggests or has the connotation of a beginning. This is because Alph is so similar to Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, which has as an alternate meaning, beginning. Coleridge, like many poets, likes to experiment with language and invent words to provide added guides to meaning. Critics have also identified the Alph with such different rivers as the Nile, the Alpheus river in Greece, and the fourth river to flow out of the Garden of Eden. Note that the word river is always accompanied by the adjective, sacred. Since rivers and water are life-giving, the sacred river may be seen as a symbol of life.

Lines 4-5

A second contrast is introduced with these lines. After the river leaves the area where Kubla Khan creates his kingdom, it flows beyond man's reach into a series of underground caverns. "Measureless to man" conveys not only caverns that man cannot physically map, but areas that are beyond the reach of his full comprehension. The river has as its ultimate destination, the sunless sea, a place without light and life, therefore a complete contrast to the earlier impression of the river.

Lines 6-7

In these lines, Coleridge returns to the construction of Khan's kingdom. Ten miles of land, which are exceptionally rich, are enclosed behind a wall with towers to protect it. The pleasure dome is not a public sight, available to anyone who wishes to visit. It is a private domain. This makes it quite different from the poet's creation which will be discussed later in the poem.

Lines 8-11

Here another contrast is introduced. The gardens, planted or cultivated areas designed by humans, fill part of the area with brightly colored flowers and sweet smelling trees, watered by numerous winding brooks which branch off from the sacred river. These gardens are set among ancient forests, which have been there as long as the land itself. The river and forests provide an ageless backdrop for Khan's dream. Although Coleridge notes the differences between Khan's planned estate and nature's realm, both seem to exist in a harmonious balance. The kingdom described in lines 6-11 is created using an evocative series of images of an earthly paradise, perhaps even a type of Eden.

Lines 12-13

Line 12 begins by signaling new and even greater contrasts which the following lines will develop as they describe the deep crack in the earth hidden under the grove of cedar trees.

Line 14

This is no artificial or man-made place. It is unreached by cultivation and civilization, a magic and even blessed spot that exists outside of man's understanding. The calm and balance of lines 8 through 11 are missing in this primitive, wild place. When holy and enchanted are joined together in this description, they convey a sense of the pagan and the supernatural.

Lines 15-16

Coleridge uses a simile to show the distance of this site from Khan's imposing gardens. The waning moon describes that period as the moon decreases from full, so less and less of it is visible. Thus, this mysterious chasm is compared to a spot haunted, by a woman crying in anguish, as the moon's light diminishes, for her demon lover. Any relationship between a human and the supernatural would be impossible in balanced garden of Khan. It could only exist in the passionate upheaval of the chasm.

Lines 17-19

This mysterious chasm is pictured in constant turbulence, very different from the garden's calm. Symbolist critics point out sexual and birth imagery in these lines. The language makes it easy to picture the earth in labor, giving birth to the fountain.

Lines 20-22

The power of the fountain which pours forth the river is apparent as huge boulders are tossed up with the water. Two similes are used to illustrate this force. In the first, the huge boulders are compared to hail. The second makes them seem even lighter. A thresher is a person or machine who separates the useful, heavier part of a kernel of grain from its lighter, useless shell or chaff. When the grain is hit with a flail, the kernel drops down immediately into a container; the chaff is blown away by the wind.

Lines 23-28

The next lines reveal all the contradictions in the river's path. Along with the boulders, the river emerges. The previous similes describing the boulders both use images involving striking: hail hits the earth; the thresher hits the grain. The mood of lines 12-22 is of turmoil and upheaval. After the rocks leave the chasm, they are described again, using a gentler metaphor, as "dancing rocks." This phrase is also an example of personification, where inanimate objects are given human characteristics. After its tumultuous beginning, the river slowly takes a wandering path through the gardens. The poet uses alliteration in line twenty-five to add a slow, humming sound, with miles, meandering, mazy and motion. The repetition of lines 3-5 in 26-28 slows the pace as well.

Lines 29-30

Although Khan's gardens initially seem a place of peace and balance, Khan himself hears a different message coming from the distant rumbles of the chasm and the cave. The tumult of the river issues a warning that human creations are not permanent. The voices of his ancestors provide testimony to the fact that the greatest creations of the world eventually come to ruin. Thus, too, the elegant dome is threatened with the destruction of war.

Lines 31-34

The various contrasts Coleridge has described in the poem so far come together in these lines. The poem returns to that part of this earthly paradise which Kubla Khan has constructed, the pleasure-dome; however, in these lines, it is not seen directly, merely as a shadow. Now the contrasting element, the turmoil of the fountain and the message of the caverns, seems to overshadow the dome's image, warning that man's creation is transitory; nature endures.

Lines 35-36

In these lines, Coleridge ends the first part of the poem, describing Kubla Khan and his world. The meter returns to iambic pentameter here, giving the lines a slower, measured quality. This meter helps to emphasize the mood or regret and loss in these lines as they summarize Kubla Khan's creative achievement. He harmonized opposing forces, sun and ice, in his miraculous dome, which has since vanished without trace.

Lines 37-38

The poet himself becomes the subject as the poem moves from Kubla Khan's physical creation to the poet's vision as he recounts seeing a young girl playing a stringed musical instrument in a dream. The poem shifts from third person to the first person, I. Note that the meter also changes again, and becomes even more regular as the poem returns to the light, upbeat tempo of iambic tetrameter throughout much of this stanza.

Lines 39-41

Coleridge again invents or adapts names to conjure a sense of mystery or the exotic. The maid in the vision, like Kubla Khan, is from a foreign place. Abyssinia is another name for Ethiopia. Mount Abora, like Alph, is a name that Coleridge created. However, several critics note its similarity to Mount Amara in Milton's Paradise Lost. The reader is not given any details of the vision; no images are provided. The reader may assume that Mount Abora is similar to Khan's paradise only because the poet says that it creates such deep delight.

Lines 42-45

This phrasing of these lines is unusual. Could is used as a conditional verb here, and the entire sentence becomes a speculation. If the poet can recover the dream, he will create a vision of Paradise; the beauty of the vision will transform the poet and enable him to use the music of his poetry to build with words what Kubla Khan had built in his kingdom. The poem leaves unanswered whether or not the poet will be able to capture that dream.

Lines 46-48

Here, the poet describes the power of successful poetic vision; not only can he renew his vision, but he has the power to convey it to all who hear or who read his words. This serves as a contrast to the Khan's pleasure-dome, bound by walls, and not meant for all to use.

Lines 49-52

All those around the poet are wary of him because he is caught up in a kind of enchantment or madness during his vision. His eyes glitter in a frenzy of creativity. This creativity, like that of the sacred river, comes from tumult. He is viewed with "holy dread" because he has drawn his vision from a place similar to the chasm described earlier, a place sacred and enchanted, pagan yet blessed. The idea of the poet being "possessed" by his vision is not new with Coleridge. The Greeks believed that creativity was often a type of momentary madness.

Lines 53-54

Honey-dew refers to the sweet honey-like substance that certain flowers, such as honeysuckle, produce in the summer. Another word for this liquid is nectar, known as the food of the gods. With his words, the poet, when he achieves his dream, can combine the chasm and the gardens, and taste Paradise.

[Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.]

ANNOTATIONS

1.Xanadu Kubla Khans legendary capital in China. Marco Polo has given a detailed description of Kubla Khans court and its grandeur. The passage in Purchas His Pilgrimage to which Coleridge refers is as follows: In Xamdu did Cublai Can build a stately Palace, encompassing sixteene miles of plaine ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant Springs, delightful Streames, and all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the middest thereof a sumptuous house of pleasure.

2.stately splendid, grand.

3.pleasure-dome a luxury palace. Here dome is used to mean a magnificent structure with the usual architectural features likes domes, arches, pillars,etc.

4.decree order (to be built).

5.Alph, the sacred river Alpheus, a river in Greece, pursued the nymph, Arethusa, and dived underground and below the sea until it re-emerged in a fountain. The Alph is also a legendary river with features similar to the river Nile in Africa. The Egyptians considered the Nile sacred, so perhaps this is why Coleridge refers to the Alph as a sacred river.

6.caverns deep caves.

7.measureless to man too deep for man to be able to measure.

8.sunless sea an underground sea or a subterranean lake.

9.ran throughsea description of the river.

10.twice five miles ten miles.

11.girdled round enclosed by walls and towers.

12.sinuous rills winding streams.

13.blossomed flowered.

14.incense-bearing sweet-smelling

15.enfolding - enclosing

16.sunny spots of greenery among the trees are clearings with plants growing and which are lit by the sunlight.

17.oh! an exclamation of wonder and surprise.

18.romantic it arouses feelings of awe, mystery and strangeness.

19.chasm a deep opening in the earth, a gorge

20.slanted down sloped down.

21.athwart - across

22.cedarn cover a cluster of cedar trees. Cedar is an evergreen tree.

23.A savage place a place of such wild scenery that it would fill us with fear and dread.

24. as holy and enchanted the words suggest that the place is sacred as well as magical, that is, a supernatural place.

25.eer for all time in future

26.waning moon a moon that is growing smaller

27.haunted visited again and again

28.wailing crying with long moaning sounds

29.demon-lover this is a reference to an eastern legend where a woman, after falling in love, discovered that her lover was a demon or a supernatural being. Thereafter, she kept on looking for him in all sorts of enchanted places.

30.ceaseless turmoil seething from within the gorge comes a never-ending agitation.

31.this earthbreathing it seemed as if the earth was breathing hard, as one does after vigorous exertion.

32.momently at short intervals.

33.forced pushed strongly out of the earth.

34.Amid whose half-intermitted burst in the middle of these bursts from the fountain that came quickly after intervals.

35.huge fragments large pieces of rock

36.vaulted shot up high into the air.

37.rebounding hail these pieces of rock looked like hail that bounces after hitting the earth because of the sheer force of its impact.

38.chaffy grainflail a flail is a club-like handled device used to separate grain from the stalks, which are called chaff. The process is known as threshing and the person who carries it out is called the thresher. As the flail strikes the corn, the grains are thrown upwards with the force of the blow, then fall down again.

39.dancing rocks this is a reference to the rocks being flung up from within the earth.

40.at once and ever once during the never-ending process.

41.It flungriver this is how the river emerged.

42.meandering winding.

43.mazy motion a movement that was so winding that it seemed to be moving through a maze.

44.dale - valley

45.tumult in a state of noisy agitation.

46.a lifeless ocean reference to the sunless sea.

47.Kublawar in the midst of the roaring sounds of the river, Kubla heard the voices of his ancestors warning him that war was imminent.

48.floated midway on the waves the shadow of Kubla Khans palace fell on the waves of the underground sea and seemed to float on the waters.

49.mingled measure mixed noise.

50.Where wascaves the sounds of the gushing fountain and from the noisy river mingled together and could be heard at the place where the shadow of the pleasure palace fell.

51.It was a miracle of rare device it was a marvellous work of human skill.

52.A sunnyice! it was a remarkable combining of a sunlit palace amid icy caves.

53.damsel young girl.

54.dulcimer an old type of stringed instrument that was played by striking the strings with two small hammers held in the hand.

55.In a vision the poet once saw a girl with a dulcimer in a dream or hallucination.

56.It was an Abyssinian maid the girl was from Abyssinia or Ethiopia.

57.Mount Abora an imaginary name. It could have a connection to the legend of Mount Amara, a hill in the plains of Ethiopia, that Purchas mentioned in his account. Incidentally, Kubla Khan had no connection with Ethiopia in any way. The reference to anything eastern was considered romantic by Europeans.

58.Could I revive within me if the poet could recreate inside himself.

59.symphony and song the song the girl sang accompanied by the music on her dulcimer.

60.To such a deepwin me it would bring him such immense pleasure.

61.All who heard everyone who heard the song and music as recreated by the poet.

62.should see them there would be able to see the vision of the palace and the caves as created by the poet.

63.All should cry Beware! Beware! the music and the images would cause such awe and fear in the audience that they would warn others to be careful of the poets shining eyes and long flowing hair.

64.Weave..dread they would advise others to draw a circle around him three times and close their eyes fear of the divine. Three was considered to be a magical number.

65.For heParadise They would issue this warning because the poet would have imbibed these magical heavenly foods which were said to produce divine inspiration. Honey-dew is the nectar produced by aphis (a type of insect) in honeysuckle. The milk of Paradise is ambrosia or the food of the gods.

THE HISTORICAL CHARACTER

Kublai Khan; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (credit: Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China)

Kublai Khan (born 1215-died 1294) was the grandson of Genghis Khan who conquered China and established the Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty. When Kublai was in his 30s, his brother, the emperor Mngke, gave him the task of conquering and administering Song-dynasty China. Recognizing the superiority of Chinese thought, he gathered around himself Confucian advisers who convinced him of the importance of clemency toward the conquered. In subduing China and establishing himself there, he alienated other Mongol princes; his claim to the title of khan was also disputed. Though he could no longer control the steppe aristocracy effectively, he succeeded in reunifying China, subduing first the north and then the south by 1279. To restore China's prestige, Kublai engaged in wars on its periphery with Myanmar, Java, Japan, and the nations of eastern Southeast Asia, suffering some disastrous defeats. At home, he set up a four-tiered society, with the Mongols and other Central Asian peoples forming the top two tiers, the inhabitants of northern China ranking next, and those of southern China on the bottom. Posts of importance were allotted to foreigners, including Marco Polo. Kublai repaired the Grand Canal and public granaries and made Buddhism the state religion. Although his reign was one of great prosperity, his politics were pursued less successfully by his followers.

BACKGROUND OF THE POEM

"Kubla Khan", whose complete title is "Kubla Khan, or a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment.", is a famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge which takes its title from the Mongol/Chinese emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty.

Coleridge claimed that it was written in the autumn of 1797 at a farmhouse near Exmoor. In the summer of the year 1797, Coleridge, then in ill health, had retired to a lonely farm-house between Porlock and Linton, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire. In consequence of a slight indisposition, an anodyne had been prescribed, from the effects of which he fell asleep in his chair at the moment that he was reading the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in a travel account, Purchas His Pilgrimage: ``Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall.'' He continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, at least of the external senses, during which time he has the most vivid confidence, that he could not have composed less than from two to three hundred lines; if that indeed can be called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort. On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! without the after restoration of the latter.

The poem's opening lines are often quoted, and it introduces the name Xanadu (or Shangdu, the summer palace of Kublai Khan):

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.

Coleridges claim, that the poem was inspired by an opium-induced dream (implicit in the poem's subtitle A Vision in a Dream), but that the composition was interrupted by the person from Porlock, seems unlikely, as most opium users have tremendous difficulty recalling dreams when opium was ingested just prior to sleeping. The poem may have been composed on one of a number of other visits to the farm. It may also have been revised a number of times before it was first published in 1816.

Some have speculated that the vivid imagery of the poem stems from a waking hallucination, albeit most likely opium-induced. Additionally, a quote from William Bartrams Travels Through the Cherokee Country is believed to have been a source of the poem. There is widespread speculation on the poem's meaning, some suggesting the author merely is portraying his vision while others insist on a theme or purpose. Others believe it is a poem stressing the beauty of creation.

The poem is perhaps most famous for its closing lines (lines 5354), where Coleridge is likely referring to himself attaining paradise through his poem:

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

In the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Coleridge, language is used to convey images from Coleridges imagination. This is done with the use of vocabulary, imagery, structure, use of contrasts, rhythm and sound devices such as alliteration and assonance.

The vocabulary used by Coleridge is of great importance in conveying the products of his imagination. The first five lines of Kubla Khan sound like a chant or incantation, and help suggest the mystery and supernatural themes of the poem. Another important theme of the poem is that of good versus evil. In the first two lines, Coleridge describes the pleasure dome in Xanadu. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree Kubla Khan did not merely order, but decree that a stately pleasure dome be built. This dome is evidence of how unnatural the place of Xanadu is, it has a ruler who ignores the unpleasantness that can be found in life.

The use of certain vocabulary challenges and teases the imagination into seeing what he, Coleridge saw in his dream. In Xanadu, there are not small streams, but sinuous rills and wall and towers do not enclose the gardens but are girdled round. Coleridges use of language and vocabulary helps to convey the extent of his imagination.

In Kubla Khan, imagery is also important for Coleridge to convey his imagination to the reader. There are images of paradise throughout the poem that are combined with references to darker, more evil places. On example of this is the demon lover that has bewitched the woman. Coleridges image of the dome of pleasure is mystical, contradicting the restrictions of realism. Xanadu is also a savage and ancient place where pure good and pure evil are much more apparent than in the monotony of everyday living. By using images, Coleridge conveys the extent of his imagination to readers. The poet makes use of supernatural agencies and situations, but they appear to us as natural. Thus, the atmosphere of strangeness and mystery has been created effectively and skilfully in the poem.

The structure of Kubla Khan is really in two parts. The first, which contains three stanzas, describes Xanadu as if Coleridge is actually there, experiencing the place first hand. The second part of the poem is filled with longing to be in Xanadu, but Coleridge is unable to capture the experience again.

The first stanza has a definite rhythm and beat and describes the beauty and sacredness of Xanadu with rich, sensual and exotic images. The second stanza depicts the savage and untamed violence of life outside of the pleasure dome. The disorder and primitive cycles of nature are mixed with images of evil and the threat of war is also introduced in the second stanza. In the third stanza, the life forces are entwined together to prove that beauty and danger cannot be separated from each other, despite what the ruler Kubla Khan wants. Kubla Khan may be a self-portrayal by Coleridge who believes that it is he who controls the land of Xanadu. A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice the dome itself is a contrast with sun and ice, the sun symbolising all things good and the ice symbolising death and destruction.

There is a definite change of tone between the third and fourth stanzas. The fourth stanza no longer describes Xanadu, but Coleridges desire for control over his imagination, to be able to re-conjure up the feelings and ideas of Xanadu.

Coleridge, having drunk the milk of paradise desired and sought after the beautiful image of Xanadu and Utopia, and his final stanza is his way of describing to the reader how badly he wants to go back there.

There are two parts to the poem. Both parts of the poem deal with the attempt to create: Kubla Khan has built a pleasure dome and Coleridge is trying to use language to recreate the perfection of his dream with words. The two parts may initially seem unconnected, but the ideas in both parts of the poem link these sections together by showing that even the ruler cannot have control over the forces of nature, and the writer over his imagination.

The structuring of the poem plays an important part in this. In Kubla Khan, Coleridge uses contrasts in the images he presents to his audience. Xanadu is idyllic, but also savage. Coleridge uses images such as a waning moon which was haunted by a woman wailing for her demon lover. This image of a woman bound to evil brings the dark side of the supposed utopia to light. The peace and serenity is contrasted by the violent disorder of the river and the threat of war. The use of language in the contrasting images helps convey to the reader the extent of Coleridges imagination. There are images of two women in the poem and they are a direct contrast to each other, one representing evil, and the Abyssinian maid exotic and beautiful. Yet the poem is a good example of appearances being deceptive. The pleasure dome may be beautiful with its bright sunny gardens and blossoming incense trees, but it is an enchanted eye of the storm. The garden is surrounded by savage destruction caused by the ceaseless turmoil seething. Xanadu is not ruled by what Coleridge wants, but by the raw, ancient corners of his mind, which are continuously struggling in their search for utopia. The ideal paradise is threatened by the darkness and disorder caused by the river Alph. Coleridge describes the river as sacred on numerous occasions throughout the poem, and to Xanadu as holy and enchanted. This is yet another contrast, how can something holy be enchanted at the same time? Coleridge talks too of miracles but mingled with the holiness, Coleridge refers to hell with his choice of language to depict what is outside the pleasure dome. The demons described are closely related to witchcraft and the closing lines of Kubla Khan describe pagan rituals that attempt to protect not only the reader, but also Coleridge himself from the forces of evil and the extent of his imagination.

Coleridge was a deeply religious man and the poem is filled with references to god and related ideas. So Xanadu perhaps symbolises the fabled Garden of Eden, it is lovely and innocent, surrounded by evil and the constant threat of destruction. Ancestral voices prophesying war could be likened to Gods warning not to go near the tree, as Eve fell for the snakes treacherous charm.

By using his wide vocabulary to depict images and contrasts, and with the help of some literary techniques such as imagery and contrasts, Coleridge easily conveys to the reader the extent of his imagination. The descriptive quality of the poem is highly sensuous. The poem abounds in suggestive phrases and lines capable of evoking mystery. The metre of the poem is light and fast: the verses move from delight and surprise through enthusiasm to ecstasy. The poem is of course not complete and the action leads nowhere. But it is a masterly exhibition of poetic craft, an expression of a vision tinged with mystery. Kubla Khan is a delightful blend of imagination, emotion, mystery, sensuousness, romantic description, sweet melody and the exquisite use of words and phrases.

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