The unnamed speaker of the poem tells of how a man named Kubla khan traveled to the land of Xanadu. In Xanadu, Kubla found a fascinating pleasure-dome that was “a miracle of rare device” because the dome was made of caves of ice and located in a sunny area. The speaker describes the contrasting composition of Xanadu. While there are gardens blossoming with incense-bearing trees and “sunny spots of greenery,” across the “deep romantic chasm” in Xanadu there are “caverns measureless to man” and a fountain from which “huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail.” Amid this hostile atmosphere of Nature, Kubla also hears “ancestral voices prophesying war.” However, Kubla finds relief from this tumultuous atmosphere through his discovery of the miraculous sunny pleasure-dome made of ice.
In the last stanza of the poem, the narrator longs to revive a song about Mount Abora that he once heard a woman play on a dulcimer. The speaker believes that the song would transport him to a dream world in which he could “build that dome in air” and in which he can drink “the milk of Paradise.”
Analysis
For other commentators, “Kubla Khan” is clearly an allegory about the creation of art. As the artist decided to create his work of art, so does Kubla Khan decide to have his pleasure-dome constructed. The poem’s structure refutes Coleridge’s claim about its origins, since the first thirty-six lines describe what Kubla has ordered built, and the last eighteen lines deal with the narrator’s desire to approximate the creation of the pleasure-dome.
Xanadu is an example of humanity imposing its will upon nature to create a vision of paradise, since the palace is surrounded by an elaborate park. That the forests are “ancient as the hills” makes the imposing of order upon them more of a challenge. Like a work of art, Xanadu results from an act of inspiration and is a “holy and enchanted” place. Within this man-decreed creation are natural creations such as the river that bursts from the earth. The origin of Alph is depicted almost in sexual terms, with the earth breathing “in fast thick pants” before ejaculating the river, a “mighty fountain,” in an explosion of rocks. The sexual imagery helps reinforce the creation theme of “Kubla Khan.”
Like Kubla’s pleasure-dome, a work of art is a “miracle of rare device,” and the last paragraph of the poem depicts the narrator’s desire to emulate Kubla’s act through music. As with Kubla, the narrator wants to impose order on a tumultuous world. Like Xanadu, art offers a refuge from the chaos. The narrator, as with a poet, is inspired by a muse, the Abyssinian maid, and wants to re-create her song. The resulting music would be the equivalent “in air” of the pleasure-dome. As an artist, the narrator would then stand apart from a society that fears those who create, those who have “drunk the milk of Paradise.”
Kubla Khan Plot Mood Language Imagery
"Kubla Khan: or a Vision in a Dream" is a poem that describes to us another world. It places us in the middle of a strange and wondrous setting. He describes his world in a vivid and epic manner, making it appear as ancient verse, perhaps descended from an oral legend. His use of metaphor, simile, and language all give a better view of his world by establishing the mood of the poem, each line bringing the world further to life. The first five lines immediately gives us the basic core of the poem: both in plot, mood, and language. By conveying his imagination by using language, the vocabulary used by Coleridge is of great importance. The vocabulary used throughout the poem helps convey these themes in images to the reader. The strangeness of such words as 'Xanadu' and 'pleasure-dome' are very effective in placing us in a setting that is very different from any we normally know. We are also given a feeling of wondrous and epic things.
Coleridge depicts a powerful character who "did ... a stately pleasure dome decree". The fact that Kubla Khan is able merely to decree a pleasure-dome and know that his orders will be executed implies that he is a character of both strong will and great power. The Khan decrees that a pleasure-dome be built and his order is immediately executed: 'So twice five miles of fertile ground/ With walls and towers were girdled round'
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