Kubla Khan by S. T. Coleridge (Poem, Summary and Analysis)

 

Kubla Khan

by S. T. Coleridge

(Poem, Summary and Analysis)

 

S.T. Coleridge was the poet of ‘The Age of Wordsworth’. This age is also known as ‘The Renaissance of Wonder’. It was the beginning of Romanticism.

The chief characteristics of Romanticism are –

Ø Mystery,

Ø Interest in the past,

Ø Love for nature,

Ø Interest in inhumanity,

Ø Love for the elemental simplicities of life,

Ø Freedom of imagination,

Ø Subjectivity, spontaneity and inquisitive tendency &

Ø Regeneration of poetic style.

The major poets of this age were – Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, etc.

S. T. Coleridge was born in 1772 in Devon Shire. In 1797, Coleridge and Wordsworth planned to publish ‘Lyrical Ballads’. Coleridge produced his best poetry in 1797–98. He was influenced by the French revolution. In his poetry we find mystery, supernaturalism, love for nature, mystical art, lack of actuality and incompleteness.

Like all romantic poets, Coleridge also loved nature, but he loved nature for his own sake. Like Wordsworth, he sees the veiled presence of God, in every object of nature. He, minutely and with delicacy, observes the details of his objects. The imaginative faculty of Coleridge is seen at its height in both ‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘Frost at Midnight’.

‘Kubla Khan’

(a vision in a dream. A Fragment.)

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’ is a short poem of Coleridge, which contains almost all the characteristic qualities of Romanticism. Kubla Khan was a famous Chinese conqueror who ruled over China from 1257 to 1294. He was the grandson of the famous conqueror Changez Khan. Along with mystery, supernaturalism, incompleteness and imagination the poem also shows the dreamy nature of the poet.

The poet describes a pleasure dome which Kubla Khan orders to be built in Xandu. Xandu is a fertile place and the pleasure dome was built by the side of the sacred river ‘Alph’. According to the poem Xandu is a romantic place, haunted by demons and fairies. The poet says, that a chasm runs through this place and from this chasm a fountain spring up.   With the fountain, huge fragments of rocks vault up, like the rebounding hail or the chaffy grain under the thresher’s flail, from the ground. The river Alph origins from this fountain. It runs through this place in a mazy motion and then through caverns, measureless to man, and sinks into the lifeless ocean. The pleasure dome is a miracle of rare device because it is a sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice.

The poet further describes a damsel whom he once saw in a vision. According to the poet this Abyssinian maid is singing of mount Abora on her dulcimer. The poet was so overwhelmed by the music of the maid, that he wishes to revive that music and if he could revive the sound, he would build the sunny pleasure dome, with caves of ice in air. Meanwhile the people around him, shall see the dome, in air, and will close their eyes, with holy dread, because they will think the poet, either a supernatural being or a person who has fed the honey dew or the milk of paradise.

“for he on honey dew hath fed,

and drunk the milk of paradise”

In the second part of the poem, the poet depicts his state of fancy. There is an abrupt change from the 37th line, when he starts the description of a damsel.

‘Kubla Khan’ is a wonderful melody. It is taken from the stuff of the poet’s dreams. The poet has used supernatural elements, in the poem, to deepen the effect of mystery –

“A savage place! As holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon lover”.

According to Coleridge himself, the poem is inspired by the perusal of a famous travel book ‘Purchas’s Pilgrimage’. While reading the book Coleridge had been in a state, as if he had taken a dose of opium. When he woke up from his dream, he wrote what he had seen in the dream. He had hardly written 50 lines when he was interrupted by a friend. After the friend had gone, he tried to resume his poem but the thought had slipped out of his memory and he had to finish the poem with the description of an Abyssinian maid. In the poem we find artistic beauty, pure imagery and pure music.

In the poem the elements of the travel book blends with the dream of the poet and the result is a delicate romantic picture. The names or the words used in the poem are all unfamiliar ones like, Xandu, Alph, Dulcimer, Abyssinian maid, etc. the poet has given an imaginative touch of realism with the words like, sinuous rills, ancient forests, sunny spots of greenery, the deep romantic chasm etc. There is a kind of haunted music in the poem. The poet has used alliteration, liquid consonants, onomatopoeia, and hard consonants to produce the effect of prose and harshness.

The melody of the poem is matchless and the lines are musical. The poet has not followed any regular rhythm pattern. The poem shows Coleridge’s love for nature mingled with mysticism.

“where Alph, the sacred river ran

Through the caverns,

measureless to man,

Down to a sunless sea”

“and here were forests,

Ancients as hills”