Kubla Khan Analysis

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.

.: :.

Prologue:
"On awakinging 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." The poet wrote down the things that he remembered from his dream, but was rudely interrupted by business destroying his ability to recollect what he had envisioned. The Kubla Khan poem is basically about the destruction of beauty or the destruction of the once beautifull images that were embedded into his dream and the business that detained him from writing a great masterpiece.

| Posted on 2008-11-03 | by a guest

.: :.

Prologue:
"On awakinging 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." The poet wrote down the things that he remembered from his dream, but was rudely interrupted by business destroying his ability to recollect what he had envisioned. The Kubla Khan poem is basically about the destruction of beauty or the destruction of the once beautifull images that were embedded into his dream and the business that detained him from writing a great masterpiece.

| Posted on 2008-11-03 | by a guest

.: :.

I think that The Great Katherine was correct in her descrption that this poem goes far beyond the constrainsts of nature, and us as humans. However, I think that Bradie D. Joan's explanation is the most relevant. She said that it was the opium that he had that caused him to see all of these things in his imagination, and through that he realized that life is so dear that it cannot be taken lightly.

| Posted on 2008-10-29 | by a guest

.: :.

I think that this poem is about Amanda Smith. How she is very sick and feel like she is dying, even though she really enjoys this class because we are in the computer lab. I also think that today was the best lunch yet because i had subway. Amanda also wants to know what you should take, medicine wise, for a cold.

| Posted on 2008-10-09 | by a guest

.: KK :.

The poem is clearly a very complex piece of literature which cannot be entirely described or explained within such a short space. However, the main themes of the poem, i believe, are as follows; beauty/power of nature, carelessness of mankind, the prejudging and selfish nature of mankind and the corruption of power. All of themes are woven into the poem with the use of serene and beautiful language which conjour up vast and powerful images. This type of method is one which was very popular amongst the Romantics.

| Posted on 2008-05-18 | by a guest

.: Meaning :.

Personally, i think there is very little deeper meaning to this poem. I believe it is simply a stream of consiesness in response to an opeom opium enduced dream. The simple fact that is unfinsihed due to someone coming to the door shows the almost lack of meaning to this poem. That said it is still a brilliant poem, its brilliance lies simply in people's ability to find their own individual meaning for this poem.

| Posted on 2008-05-17 | by a guest

.: Kubla Khan :.

Kubla Khan is a beautiful poem
but i don't think that it has anything to do with sexual activity
to me, it's about the imposibility of humanity living in a Utopia due to the fact that there is always someone wanting to take control. It is a corrupted place (because of the humans) and nature understands this, which casues it to demolish itself to rid the pettiness of the people.

| Posted on 2008-05-02 | by a guest

.: Meaning:: :.

I agree with the theory about how Kubla Khan is referring to Nature's Beauty. I think that the whole river thing is referring to a flood, and perhaps the war the ancestral voices are prophecizing might be saying nature is declaring war because of Humans' ignoring the natural beauty before them.
The Abyssinian maid may be referring to the fact we focus a lot on just how beautiful people are and forget nature, and her song might also be representing that music is something beautiful but sometimes overlooked as well. The lines after that might be saying we can build paradise with beauty like song and nature...and, drifting a bit, the whole Beware Beware thing could be about how we taint and corrupt beauty we have.
"Drunk the milk of paradise", in my opinion, does indeed have some reference to temptation...to gaining power?
I think in all the poem has to do with how we corrupt beauty with greed and lust for power thanks to easily tempted minds.
(Keep in mind, the above is NOT my opinion on the world or situations in real life itself or anything, just what I think the poem means. :) )

| Posted on 2008-04-30 | by a guest

.: nautre :.

I think it's about the terrifying and vengeful force of nature... and how man easily forgets this power. Mankind overlooks the beauty in nature and the ability it has to destroy all that man has spent generations building.

| Posted on 2008-04-29 | by a guest

.: sex? :.

This fragment (if we bevieve STC's story) is about poetry and the role of poetry in society : his flashing eyes/ his floating hair/ weave a circle about him thrice/ and close your eyes with holy dread...
The poet is inspired by the wildness of the scene and as one with knowledge and the godlike power to create, he is to be revered and feared.

| Posted on 2008-02-18 | by a guest

.: fantasy :.

coleridge he is a brillant writer espically when he was on the drugs and this poem is beautiful is meesy at the end when he a woke but still great but as for wat it means i think ...
the romantics were big on fantasy so serins/mermaids fit in to the poem kinda you have a a thing of such beauty calling her firey sprited man in to her with her seduction but after that i get a little stuck and refer back to thinking it as him refering to sex etc...

| Posted on 2008-02-11 | by a guest

.: the sex conation :.

coleridge he is a brillant writer espically when he was on the drugs and this poem is beautiful is meesy at the end when he a woke but still great but as fro wat it means i think ...
well yes the sex conitation works
as the river is the girl pure and inocent yet amazinly beautiful andd the man comes along and woes her and she loeses that inoccense and in the 18th century this would have been considered foolish and with no concerption there is the risk of pregnacy hint the caves and the ice they would have been looked down on not being married with a baster child.
that's the romantics for you over the top n reckless :)

| Posted on 2008-02-11 | by a guest

.: meaning :.

well i think that this poem is about a women giving birth to her child because a fountain was fored just like when a women is about to give birth and he is just dreaming about his beautiful wife and soon the baby comes and feeds on the milk of paradise.

| Posted on 2008-01-14 | by a guest

.: meaning :.

well i think that this poem is about a women giving birth to her child because a fountain was fored just like when a women is about to give birth and he is just dreaming about his beautiful wife and soon the baby comes and feeds on the milk of paradise.

| Posted on 2008-01-14 | by a guest

.: meaning :.

well i think that this poem is about a women giving birth to her child because a fountain was fored just like when a women is about to give birth and he is just dreaming about his beautiful wife and soon the baby comes and feeds on the milk of paradise.

| Posted on 2008-01-14 | by a guest

.: the sex analysis :.

in my opinion the sex analysis is the best.. becouse sex is a concept deepseated in human nature. So when the writer was unconscious one of his primary istinct was emerged.

| Posted on 2007-12-20 | by a guest

.: the sex analysis :.

in my opinion the sex analysis is the best.. becouse sex is a concept deepseated in human nature. So when the writer was unconscious one of his primary istinct was emerged.

| Posted on 2007-12-20 | by a guest

.: Kubla Khan :.

Obviously, there is more to this poem than just what is written on the surface. It's inevitably all up to interpretation, but you can pick out sexual imagery and imagery relating to a "holy" type of place. There is possibly a significant emphasis put on Adam and Eve -- "close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, and drunk the milk of Paradise." There are many allusions to temptation and the fall of the kingdom or Paradise. The word Abyssinian -- "located in the Garden of Eden." So, you can't deny that there could be religious imagery thrown in throughout the poem.

As for the sexual imagery, of course that isn't hard to miss. "A mighty fountain momentarily was forced" -- referring to the climax, etc. Then comes the problem of the 'damsel with a dulcimer', where does she fit in with the sexual imagery? The only other answer could be that the poem is clearly describing masturbation. "A damsel with a dulcimer in a vision I once saw." It all pretty much fits.

But either way, it's up to interpretation - yet, these theories are all feasible and justified by the poem.

| Posted on 2007-11-13 | by a guest

.: Kubla Khan :.

Analysis:
I figured the poem is definately about war, which ties into the reason for the poet smoking drugs of this kind.

In china Opium was smoked before great battles.
Therefore my theory of the poem is that the writer sees that every army is fighting to see paradise, and yet paradise is right before their eyes (in nature).


Especially in the second stanza we can see how prominent religon is in the world and how that through differnt faiths we are killing off their sole objective (to discover paradise).

The repeated comparisson of sun/ice is the poets way of enthasising that the world appears perfect (sunny) but has hidden evil (caves of ice)

The deep description is all due to the writter smoking opium (before battle) and this gives the readers an insight to what possesses the men to fight over something, due to its increased beauty due to the drugs.

The poem closes with "he hath drank the mild of paradise" This could mean that although we are always out to seek utopia, we have already once experienced it.


| Posted on 2007-10-25 | by a guest

.: :.

This poem is about a place that was really beautiful and then became ugly to the narrators eye. Describing abou thow wonderful this place was, it was just great. But then this woman gets raped. And because of what happened there and the memories the place isn't beautiful anymore. The narrator can only see the ugly things about the place and bad things. It was beautiful and ugly/terrorising at the same time. And then it's about how the narrator could revive the beauty of this place if only he could remember how the girl who got raped was.

| Posted on 2007-09-11 | by a guest

.: Kubla Khan :.

This poem is metapoetry. It is poetry about poetry. It reflects Coleridge's desire to regain his former poetic glory expressed through the metaphor of Kubla Khan, the greatest man that ever lived. The Juxtaposition of Hot and Cold, Dark and Light, is representative of the duality of nature. Like Keats' 'ode to melancholy', one aspect is never truly appreciated without the other. You cannot appreciate light if you have not seen dark. In the Poem Coleridge compares himself to Kubla Khan, who understands the duality of nature. This self reflective aspect can be seen through "could i revive within me her symphony and song". All of this is reflective of Coleridge's Romantic ideals, finding God through contemplation of Nature. Coleridge is trying to regain his poetic skill because, like Kubla Khan understands duality, Coleridge can appreciate its worth because he has lost his skill. Ironically this is his best work.

| Posted on 2007-08-04 | by a guest

.: :.

Has anybody actually considered that maybe this poem is just detailing place, telling of the history of China in Inner Mongolia and the santuary he created to get out of the harsh summers sun? And this was such a perfect santuary because the caverns were so protective from the heat that there was even ice in there? Look through the poem, it isnt giving the philosophy of life, merely telling a story. One samual Taylor coloridge probably learnt about studying history at university of something. To prove my point that not all poem type things are written with a hidden meaning i will deconstruct another which may help you when analysing Kubla Kahn. Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow. Ok i know this isnt a poem but it proves my point, just see. ok now mary has a little lamb...but..a lamb is a sheep....and sheep follow the crowd...so mary is suffering from peer pressure....and the sheep is white...white symbolises innocence so perhaps mary is a virgin and she is suffering peer pressure...everywhere that mary went the lamb/peer pressure was sure to go. i know it seems a bit ridiculous, that was my point, do you really think the writer intended it to be about mary loosing her virginity? No it is about a girl owning a lamb. Just like this poem is just about a man building a paradise.

| Posted on 2007-07-06 | by a guest

.: :.

Has anybody actually considered that maybe this poem is just detailing place, telling of the history of China in Inner Mongolia and the santuary he created to get out of the harsh summers sun? And this was such a perfect santuary because the caverns were so protective from the heat that there was even ice in there? Look through the poem, it isnt giving the philosophy of life, merely telling a story. One samual Taylor coloridge probably learnt about studying history at university of something

| Posted on 2007-07-06 | by a guest

.: :.

Has anybody actually considered that maybe this poem is just detailing place, telling of the history of China in Inner Mongolia and the santuary he created to get out of the harsh summers sun? And this was such a perfect santuary because the caverns were so protective from the heat that there was even ice in there? Look through the poem, it isnt giving the philosophy of life, merely telling a story. One samual Taylor coloridge probably learnt about studying history at university of something

| Posted on 2007-07-06 | by a guest

.: :.

This poem has too many deep meanings:
1) Sex: pleasure dome = penis, chasm = vagina, fountain = sperm, caverns = fallopian tubes, etc.
2) Nature is greater than man: the caverns "measureless to man", and the fact that Kubla Khan, who is supposed to be mighty and powerful tries to capture this for himself, but nature kills it with the eruption and flooding of the Alph
3) The imagination: the pleasure dome could mean whatever one wants it to mean: to Kubla Khan it is a bright garden in paradise, to the poet it is the music the Abyssinian maid has played, some even say that the opium-induced high is the pleasure dome.

I think this would be much more clear if he'd finished this, but then again, Douglas Adams says that the world would be destroyed. Quite frankly, this is just too weird.

| Posted on 2007-06-28 | by a guest

.: :.

honestly, i didnt get the sex part of it:p my impressions were that coleridge paints two worlds with the poem. One, being the normal world, sort of like the garden of eden ('gardens bright') being 'girdled round' with walls- preserving and protecting the beauty and holiness (hence the religious 'incense-bearing tree' and 'sacred river' imagery). The holy imagery, along with the emphasis on alph and the 'caverns measureless to man' shows that this place was dedicated to god's creation.
But as we know, Colerige wasnt happy with religion and the way it was practiced and therefore introduced the next stanza showing us the taboo side of things- all in the same place, possibly implying that the boundaries between what was good and evil weren't as rigid as we thought. The way he describes the place, with the dramatic exclamation marks and the loud language is there to produce a stark contrast to the serene and suffocated place we first read about. Here he is being free and later on he says he wishes he could rebuild that place- telling us that he prefers it more. He talks about enchanting and haunting things- and still maintains the holy imagery (cedar trees were used to build Solomon's temple). This stanza could be talking about the creation of the earth, and could be associated with sex. but i dont really think of it as a metaphor for sex.
Three things are for certain. There was a Kubla Khan, and there was a Xanadu- and kubla did order an extravagant place to be built for him there. The pleasure dome could be a recreation of this and the taboo stanza could be nature reacting to man's interference trying to build something out of selfish reasons (cuz coleridge is all about nature and god, and man being the problem)when the place is devoted to God...or something. or it could just be the other world coleridge wants to portray in protest to society's depiction of religion that he so wishes he could be a part of....im so very confused. there are loads of meanings, but one must not get two contradicting ones tangled together, especially when one has their IG's the next day.

| Posted on 2007-05-22 | by a guest

.: :.

At first hes describing moments before having sex. down the hill is the savage place as holy as enchanted. 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, river = sperm??? and the cavern is o come on guys read the poem again looking for a sexual meaning , it makes sence , but the part where he starts talking about the dulcier , no idea.


| Posted on 2007-05-07 | by a guest

.: :.

At first hes describing moments before having sex. down the hill is the savage place as holy as enchanted. 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, river = sperm??? and the cavern is o come on guys read the poem again looking for a sexual meaning , it makes sence , but the part where he starts talking about the dulcier , no idea.


| Posted on 2007-05-07 | by a guest

.: :.

first of all it's a metapoem ( which is poem about poetry), secondly some clues:
The fountain is te most important, it's the strike of emotions, beyond control of mind, which absorbs whole man
Alph- is the begining of creatiin the poem (secondary imagination)
the dome is the poem (it's pleasure dome, as the aim of a poem is to give joy)
forest - primary imagination (poetry), emotions, IMAGINATION
the garden - puts control over the nature (transfigurating poetry into poem)RATIONAL MIND
shadow of the dome of pleasure - the desire is to create a poem, metonymy of desire, that's the poem that he would like to create

they want their poems to be as powerfull as the feeling that they had

however there is this awareness, haw much you loose of the poetry

a poem is the death of poetry
Poet - is in the forest, he associate himselt with inspiration

| Posted on 2007-03-30 | by a guest

.: :.

first of all it's a metapoem ( which is poem about poetry), secondly some clues:
The fountain is te most important, it's the strike of emotions, beyond control of mind, which absorbs whole man
Alph- is the begining of creatiin the poem (secondary imagination)
the dome is the poem (it's pleasure dome, as the aim of a poem is to give joy)
forest - primary imagination (poetry), emotions, IMAGINATION
the garden - puts control over the nature (transfigurating poetry into poem)RATIONAL MIND
shadow of the dome of pleasure - the desire is to create a poem, metonymy of desire, that's the poem that he would like to create

they want their poems to be as powerfull as the feeling that they had

however there is this awareness, haw much you loose of the poetry

a poem is the death of poetry
Poet - is in the forest, he associate himselt with inspiration

| Posted on 2007-03-30 | by a guest

.: :.

first of all it's a metapoem ( which is poem about poetry), secondly some clues:
The fountain is te most important, it's the strike of emotions, beyond control of mind, which absorbs whole man
Alph- is the begining of creatiin the poem (secondary imagination)
the dome is the poem (it's pleasure dome, as the aim of a poem is to give joy)
forest - primary imagination (poetry), emotions, IMAGINATION
the garden - puts control over the nature (transfigurating poetry into poem)RATIONAL MIND
shadow of the dome of pleasure - the desire is to create a poem, metonymy of desire, that's the poem that he would like to create

they want their poems to be as powerfull as the feeling that they had

however there is this awareness, haw much you loose of the poetry

a poem is the death of poetry
Poet - is in the forest, he associate himselt with inspiration

| Posted on 2007-03-30 | by a guest

.: :.

There are many deeper meanings in this poem. On the surface it is a celebration of imagination and the resulting fear of that imagination if left unchecked--as thought the imagination could result in ones inability to accept the social constructs laid out be societ and therefore would earn on condemnation by that society. But of course, there is also the really obvious sensual language going on. And when this is read the first part becomes a metaphor the complexities of orgasm,a breaking down of that sensation--both pleasurable and painful, additicive. And the if you follow this reading the condemnation by society at the end could read as the guilt involved after such a pleasure. I don't think it is a stretch to read masterbation into this poem though that is not implicit in it sensibility. The sex is hard to miss as a deeper reading, in short. Check out the reactions of nature and the slow meandering of the river with a cedarn cover. Jeez. Hard to miss.

| Posted on 2006-01-30 | by Approved Guest

.: Overt Meaning :.

As with any notable poem, there can be deep meaning read into it. However, I'll confine my analysis to the more obvious, overt meaning Coleridge put into "Kubla Khan". I'll leave it to others to analyze how the poem relates to his life and philosophy.

In short, if you take a step back the poem can be summarized as follows:

Magical place is described.
Dreamed of a woman singing.
If the dream-song was reconstructed, the magical place would become real.
And the poet would be damned by mankind.

On its surface, the poem is therefore about the ability of artists to make dreams and imagination "real" and the inevitble condemnation of novel artistic endevors.

-Frank

| Posted on 2006-01-28 | by FrankBlissett

.: :.

I canīt believe how imature can be some people but well, their problem!
The thing is that I had to analise this poem for school and I found an interpretation of my own that I want to share eventhough it doesnīt mean that it is the right one.
I think that this poem is more that just the example of a philosophy well known by Coleridge (Fichteīs idealismus based on Kantīs theories about the noumenon and the phenomenon)... eventhough they are supposed to be the bases of his art work, I think that KUBLA KHAN is more an ode to opium and its ability to make u imagine things that go beyond the reality.
Not in vane the author speaks about the milk of paradise (u should know the color of opium) and about the dome of pleasure.
Many persons think that this second dome is all about erotism but no

| Posted on 2005-11-27 | by Approved Guest

.: :.

This poem has a very erotic undertone. In the first stanza, the poem describes two different things with the same words. The "face value" interpretation is that it is describing a landscape with rivers and caves and fountains. This place is extremely beautiful, it is alive with life (refers to it breathing), it is harmonious and serene place. It is written so it litterally almost takes your breath away when you read it.
Another layer of interpreation on this same first stanza is that is about a release of some sort. Obviously, I believe the release to be sexual. Go back and underline any words with sexual connotations and reread the poem with emphasis on these words you will find an entirely new poem. (words to look out for: pleasure dome, rivers, caverns, fertile grounds, SINuous (original meaning means curvy, but I believe the word was choosen for its prefix), deep romantic chasm, enchanted,...etc...the very convincing words follow).
I realize this isn't very thorough, and could also be entirely wrong.

| Posted on 2005-10-03 | by Approved Guest

.: ??? :.

Analysis: I assume that there is some hidden/deeper meaning in this poem because we were assigned to find some...I have no idea what it is though. I assume that there is some hidden/deeper meaning in this poem because we were assigned to find some...I have no idea what it is though. I assume that there is some hidden/deeper meaning in this poem because we were assigned to find some...I have no idea what it is though. I assume that there is some hidden/deeper meaning in this poem because we were assigned to find some...I have no idea what it is though. I assume that there is some hidden/deeper meaning in this poem because we were assigned to find some...I have no idea what it is though.

| Posted on 2005-04-19 | by Approved Guest