Analysis of Kubla Khan

Analysis of Kubla Khan

The poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Coleridge describes images from the poet’s imagination. Using wide vocabulary to show images, the poet communicates to the reader the extent of his imagination. The language used throughout the poem describes these images in his dream. The location where Kubla Khan resides is an imaginary place known as Xanadu. The landscape surrounding Kubla's domain is wild and untamed. The first stanza describes the beauty and mystery of Xanadu with rich and exotic images. The poet says “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree:”(1-2). The first two lines talks about the “pleasure-dome” in Xanadu. This “pleasure-dome” was where he lived and ruled. “Where Alph, the sacred river ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea”(3-5). This talks about mystery of the area. Alph, first letter of the greek alphabet, being the name of the sacred river, running through endless caverns up to a mystery sea. The poet says where the river ends is a place of darkness and unknown. Lines 6-11 describe more of a paradise scenery. It gives a bright picture of the landscape and a range of colors are connected. “And there were gardens bright with sinous rills, / Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;”(7-8). Blossmed and bright giving color in the scenery.

The second part shows the savage and violence of life outside of the “pleasure dome.” It describes nature and images of evil and war mixed together. “A savage place! As holy and enchanted”(14). The poet gives graphic descriptions of an eruption: “As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, / A mighty fountain momently was forced”(18-19). The poet describes the earth as an angry human breathing then goes on to say either water or magma is erupting from the earth. Seems like the land is going through a catastrophic state. The cause is unknown. “Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail”(21), meaning large rocks were hurled in the air as if something exploded. The next lines describe the first scenes of the poem going through the violence of the erupting earth: “And �mid these dancing rocks at once and ever / It flung up momently the sacred river”(23-24). This probably means the rocks hurled in the air were by the sacred river Alph. “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:”(25-28). The poet describes the violence of the earth moving through the sacred river then through the caverns probably in a zig zag motion or “labyrinth.” It then exits