Kubla Khan

BY SA MUE L TAY LOR CO LER IDGE

Or, 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.

About The Poet ( Samuel Taylor Coleridge )

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet , literary critic and

philosopher. He was one of the founders of Romantic Movement in
England.

Significance Of Subtitle Of The Poem :-

 The subtitle of the poem lets the reader become conscious of the fact that
the poem is dreamy in nature and it is filled with fragments of some sort
of vision. According to Coleridge’s Preface to KublaKhan , the poem
was composed by him one night after he experienced an opium –
influenced dream after reading a work describing Xanadu , the summer
palace of the Mongol ruler and the Emperor of China , that is , Kubla
Khan . Hence , the subtitle of the poem is basically a reference to the
partial composition of the poem by the poet while he was in a state of
trance due to the consumption of opium . However , the poem remained
incomplete as Coleridge was interrupted by a chance visitor.

Explanation Of The Poem :

 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.

Meaning Of Difficult Words :-

Stately pleasure dome : A beautiful palace

Decree : A command or an order
Caverns : Caves
Girdled round : That which surrounds something
Sinuous Rills : Abrupt streams of water
Incense-bearing tree : Fragrant trees
Enfold : Embrace

In the aforementioned lines of the verse, the poet, that is, Coleridge has
referred to a beautiful palace that was supposed to be built on the orders
of Kubla Khan in a place called Xanadu. In that place, that is, Xanadu, a
sacred river, that is, Alph , flows through the caves. Those caves or
caverns seem to be inaccessible to humankind and that river Alph
ultimately merges into a sea which is completely devoid of the rays of the
sun. In Xanadu, there is a fertile ground which extends to ten miles. That
fertile ground is full of bright gardens and is surrounded by walls and
towers. Many fragrant trees grow in those gardens along with a sight of
abrupt streams of water. In Xanadu, there are many forests that are as
ancient (old) in their existence as the hills. Those ancient forests embrace
the greenery which is covered by the majestic ( that is, bright or
lustrous ) rays of the sun.

 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!

Meaning Of Difficult Words :-

Chasm : A bottomless pit or an abyss

Athwart : Across
Cedarn cover : Cedarn cover refers to a lot of Cedar or coniferous trees

( The above picture depicts the physical appearance of Cedar trees )

Savage Place : In this context, savage refers to the marvellous beauty of

nature.
Enchanted: Charmed or Delighted.
Waning : Shrinking
Wailing : Crying
Demon lover : Disloyal lover
Ceaseless : Endless
Turmoil seething : Water creating noise while flowing
Chaffy grain : Inedible parts of grain
Threshing : The act of separating the edible grain from the inedible grain
(chaff)
Thresher : Anyone or anything that threshes
Flail : A tool used for threshing
Meandering : Twisting
Mazy motion : Zig Zag motion
Dale : Valley
Wood : Forests
Tumult : Noise
Prophesying : A prophecy or a prediction

The poet then continues to portray the image of Xanadu in the eyes of the
readers. The poet is describing the deep chasm in Xanadu that is slanted
in appearance and the hill that is visually green as it is completely
covered with cedar trees. The poet claims that all these beautiful images
of natural and scenic beauty in Xanadu seem to enchant him and
therefore, he seems to be completely lost in the holy beauty of Xanadu.

The poet then makes a very surprising comparison. The poet says that it
is seeming as if a woman is crying over her unfaithful and disloyal lover
under a shrinking moon. This comparison creates a haunting image in
front of the readers. Further, the poet says that water is noisily and
endlessly flowing out of the chasm which makes the earth appear to be
in a state of breathing heavily.

The poet then draws the attention of the readers towards a mighty
(powerful ) fountain (or spring) that comes out with a lot of force and
the huge fragments (parts) of that fountain
(spring ) seem to be like hail (pieces of ice). Another unique comparison
is made by Coleridge between the grain and the water. He says that water
bounces and drops just like the chaffy grain (the inedible part of grain )
that bounces and drops while it is threshed . The poet then says that for a
moment, the water of the sacred river, that is, Alph , seems to come out
violently from the spaces between the dancing rocks. And for five miles,
 this water of Alph seems to be in motion ( in a state of moving ) in a
twisted or a zig – zag manner. The river Alph flows through forests and
valleys and it ultimately reaches to those caves that are inaccessible to
humankind. Finally, the river Alph submerges into a lifeless ocean while
making noisy sounds.

Amidst the tumult (or the noise) that is created by the Alph river, Kubla
Khan astonishingly (surprisingly) listens to the voices of his ancestors
(the former generation of his family ) that predict the upcoming war
between his family members.

 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!

Meaning Of Difficult Words :-

Mingled : mixed

The shadow of Kubla Khan’s dome shaped palace seemed to float

midway on the waves. The mingled ( mixed ) voices of both fountain as
well as the caves could be heard from the palace of Kubla Khan . It
seemed to be a miracle or a rare thing that on one side, the rays of the
sun were falling on the dome shaped palace of Kubla Khan whereas on
the other side, there are caves of ice near that palace. This is a difficult
yet a unique picture to imagine and therefore , Coleridge has called it a
rare device.
  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.

Meaning Of Difficult Words :-

Damsel : A young woman

Dulcimer : A musical instrument
( The above picture depicts the appearance of a dulcimer )

Symphony : A piece of music

Dread : Fear

Coleridge then says that he once saw a young woman with her dulcimer
in one of his visions (dreams). That young woman was Abyssinian, that
is, she belonged to Abyssinia (old name of Ethiopia which is a country in
Eastern Africa) . She was playing her dulcimer and was singing of Mount
Abora ( a mythical place that was created by the imagination of
Coleridge). The poet expressed a desire to revive ( or restore ) the song
of that damsel as that song’s melodiousness had won the heart of the
poet. According to the poet, if he would have been able to restore the
song of that damsel, he would have achieved the power of creating that
dome shaped palace (that was covered in the rays of sun) in air.
And the people who are merely listening about the grand beauty of that
palace would have then been able to witness that dome in reality. And
all those people who would have witnessed that beautiful palace and
Kubla Khan in reality would have shouted, “ Beware ! Beware ! ’’. The
poet then merges his identity with Kubla Khan as he envisions himself
being spoken of by everyone around, warning one another, to beware of
the flashing eyes and floating hair of Kubla Khan. The speaker or Kubla
Khan also becomes a figure of superstition who would be encircled by
the ones who were around him in order to safeguard themselves from his
power.

Finally, Coleridge creates a mysterious image of Kubla Khan (or

himself) by attaching Godly or divine elements to the persona of Kubla
Khan. The speaker says that Kubla Khan has fed on honey-dew and the
milk of paradise and therefore, he might possess Godly powers. As a
result, the people around him should close their eyes with the fear of the
Godly powers that are possibly possessed by Kubla Khan. On this
mysterious note, the poem finally comes to an end.