Poem Kubla Khan Analysis Summary
Once Kubla Khan, the grandson of Chengiz Khan ordered to build a magnificent pleasure place on the bank of the sacred river, Alph which flowed through deep and immeasurable caverns in the hill and ultimately sank into a dark subterranean sea.
So a fertile land of ten square miles in area was enclosed with walls and towers with beautiful gardens, meandering streams, trees laden with fragrant flowers and bright spots overgrown with green mass of vegetation. There was a deep romantic chasm from which a fountain burst forth and fell on the earth into the dark sea with roaring sound. With every burst of the water huge pieces of rocks were thrown up.
They fell on the earth like hailstones and after hitting the ground they scattered about like chaffy grains flying about under the thresher’s flail. It was savage place and holy place round which a woman frequented for demon lover. The river Alph issuing out of this fountain meanders for five miles through woods and valleys. In the midst of the loud noise of the river, Kubla Khan could hear from far the voices of his forefathers prophesying war.
The shadow of the pleasure dome fell in the middle of the river. The pleasure palace of Kubla Khan was wonder of human skill. It was surrounded on all sides with the caves of ice and its dome was bathed in sun light.
In his dream, the poet could see an Abyssinian maid singing of the beauty of Mount Abora with the instrument dulcimer. The song charmed the poet. The poet felt that if he could reproduce her sweet song in his imagination, he would get such a divine inspiration from it that he would create a pleasure palace as beautiful and magnificent as Kubla’s in his poetry. Then people would hold him with awe and draw a circle round him thrice and close their eyes.
Kubla Khan Analysis with Questions Answers
1. What is the source of the poem, Kubla Khan by S.T Coleridge?
Ans: In the summer of 1797, the poet S.T Coleridge had retired to a lonely farm-house within the confines of Somerset and Devonshire. One day he fell asleep in his chair due to the effect of Ananodyne prescribed for his slight in disposition. At the moment, he was reading the following sentences in Purchas’s Pilgrimage: “Here Kubla Khan commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden there unto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground were enclosed with a wall”.
In his sleep a poem rose to his mind and on waking after a profound sleep of three hours, he began to write the poem. But before it could be written out completely, a person on business from Porlock interrupted him and when he returned to it after an hour, all memory was gone. An immediate inspiration came from the book which Coleridge was reading before he fell asleep.
2. Description of the atmosphere of Xanadu.
Ans: In the first part of S.T Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, the pictorial surroundings of Xanadu is described. Just at the point where the great pleasure dome is decreed, a sacred river runs into the ground in measureless caverns down to a “sunless sea”. The dome rises above an artificial paradise, ten miles in diameter, including both fragrant gardens and ancient forests. Amid this forests, a geyser flinging huge rocks. The underground river is forced up suddenly and runs five miles above ground until it reaches the caverns again and sinks down with an apocalyptic tumult.
3. Why does the chasm seem romantic to the poet?
Ans: In the first part of his poem, Kubla Khan while describing the Xanadu landscape, S.T Coleridge mentions a deep chasm that runs down the slope of a green hill across a wood of cedar trees. This mysterious and awe-inspiring chasm reminds one of Walter Peter’s definition of the romantic as “strangeness added to beauty”. The chasm veiled under mystery with its supernatural eerieness and dreamlike vagueness creates a romantic atmosphere, though it is a morbid aspect of romanticism.
4. What are the supernatural elements found in the poem, Kubla Khan by S.T Coleridge?
Ans: S.T Coleridge’s Kubla Khan has an unmistakable supernatural touch. The process of the genesis of the river Alph – the bursting of the fountain volleying up huge rocks and its subterranean terminus evokes an eerie sense of supernaturalism. The “woman wailing for her demon lover” and “the ancestral voices prophesying war” are obviously supernatural occurrences. Towards the end of the poem, the poet is presented as a supernatural being feeding on honey-dew and milk of Paradise. But what is remarkable about Kubla Khan is the convincing presentation of the supernatural elements. The supernatural elements in the poem, Kubla Khan do not jar on our senses of probability.
5. Describe the creation of the fountain through the caverns as presented in the poem Kubla Khan.
Ans: In the poem, Kubla Khan by S.T Coleridge, while delineating the Xanadu landscape, describes the course of subterranean river Alph. In its course, the water of the river Alph bursts forth from a deep chasm intermittently in the form of a geyser. With the water of it come out huge pieces of rock with the noise of hail stones rebounding from the earth or the chaffy grain flung about under the thrasher’s frail. The river Alph, issuing out of this fountain, flows in a zigzag course for five miles and then sinks into the “sunless sea” with an apocalyptic tumult.
6. Describe the images used in the poem Kubla Khan.
Ans: S.T Coleridge’s Kubla Khan exhibits an array of images. The dome decreed by Kubla Khan is an image of pleasure. There is a distinct contrast between gardens planted within the territory, suggestive of human creation; and forests, suggestive of nature’s creation. The deep romantic chasm is an image of fear and mystery while the mighty fountain is an image of inexhaustible energy.
The waning lunar crescent is suggestive of decay and the ancestral voices prophesying war suggest that dark compulsion that binds the race to its habitual conflicts. The spherical dome is an image of fulfillment and satisfaction, being circular and complete like a feminine figure. The “thick parts” of the earth is an image of exceedingly emotional passion experienced by mother Earth giving birth to her child – the fountain. Earth is the mother with “deep chasm” – its womb and the upjetting fountain- her child. The fountain continues its flow in the form of the river which is the image of life and its “mazy motion” represents the spiritual complexities of life.
The “caverns measureless to man” suggest infinity and nothingness. The shadow of the dome floating on the waves suggests the vulnerability and impermanence of all artistic creations. “Flashing eyes” and “floating hair” of the poet are the images of poetic frenzy and the “honeydew” and “the milk of Paradise” are the images of poetic inspiration.
7. Consider the poem Kubla Khan a poem about poetry and poetic imagination.
Ans: The three sections in S.T Coleridge’s Kubla Khan comprising Kubla Khan’s earthly paradise in Xanadu with its “stately pleasure dome”, the dreadful Xanadu landscape and the poet’s past vision of an Abyssinian maid respectively are decisively constituted to establish the eternal potentialities of poetry. The “pleasure dome” – the proud manifestation of Kubla’s riches and power is threatened by “ancestral voices” to be ravaged by conflicts in time.
At this point the poet refers to the unique power of the poetic mind that, if properly inspired can create such a dome as Kubla’s “in air” – a dome potentially permanent, being beyond the particularities of time and space. That is why, Humphrey House takes Kubla Khan as a poem about the act of poetic creation, about “the ecstasy in imaginative fulfillment”.
8. How can the poem Kubla Khan be considered as a fragment?
Ans: Although the third part of S.T Coleridge’s Kubla Khan comprising the poet’s past vision of an Abyssinian maid, it seems a bit incongruous to the first two parts of the poem. A deeper reading of the poem proves that the poem is intentionally composed in this manner to establish the eternal potentialities of poetry. In the first two parts, the poet describes the stupendous magnificence of Kubla’s “pleasure dome”.
But as it is an earthly creation it is always under the threat of transience. Then the poet tells of the poetic creation which can outdo Kubla’s dome in magnificence and at the same time it is eternal. Thus, we see that there is ample cohesion among the three parts of the poem and it is not a fragment.
9. Give the explanation of the phrase “caves of ice”.
Ans: The phrase “caves of ice” taken from S.T Coleridge’s Kubla Khan describes the halls of Kubla’s “pleasure done”. The halls of the building are made of marble and alabaster and are cool and white like caves of ice. It is actually the poet’s vision of a paradoxical paradise – one which contains the opposites – “a sunny dome” and “caves of ice” ; convex hot and concave cold. Uncontrolled energy symbolized by the sunny dome is opposed by the annihilation represented by “caves of ice.
This is the essence of ideal art. It is the archetypal of heaven and hell, of life and death, of creation and destruction. It represents the whole panorama of existence. The “caves of ice” may also hint at the cool cavernous depths in the unconscious mind.
Outlines of the Poem Kubla Khan
The site of the Pleasure-dome of Kubla Khan
The sacred river Alph flowed down ceaselessly by the side of that place. The poet, too, traces the course of the river. The river Alph, taken as holy, flowed through immeasurably deep caves to fall into a sea, shadowy under lofty hills. The stately pleasure-dome comprised a fertile tract of land of ten square miles. That was, again enclosed with walls and towers.
A number of small streams passed through that track of land in a meandering way. It also had several gardens with numerous trees, land with sweet fragrance of flowers. There were forests as well as hills, ancient enough, to cover the green, lovely valley around Kubla’s pleasure-dome.
The origin of the sacred river Alph
The poet presents poetically the origin of the river Alph by the side of which the palace of Kubla Khan was to be erected. That sacred river’s actual origin was in a chasm, deep and desolate. It was all a secluded place, haunted with a sense of mystery and fear. That chasm was naturally taken as something strange and romantic.
Yet, the place had a touch of holiness in its magical suggestiveness and mysterious suspense. The poet adds to the scenic charms of the place by a mystical touch of the waning moon. What he suggests in the paleness of the moon under the effect of magic and witchcraft. The weird environment is further intensified by an anecdote.
That is about a woman in love with a demon who had deserted her after living with her. Much distressed by his desertion, she went to some lonely, rather mystical place to mourn for his absence. In the poet’s view that romantic chasm had a similar setting as its place of origin. The entire indicates Coleridge’s artistry to create an atmosphere of mystery and dread out of a quite natural setting. His art to convey supernatural suspense and suggestiveness is well borne out here.
Kubla Khan’s Pleasure-dome, a miracle of rare device
This is Coleridge’s imaginative account of the pleasure-dome of Kubla Khan in his poem “Kubla Khan”. The mighty oriental monarch ordered to build a palace of pleasure-dome at his summer capital Xanadu. The poet here visualises some portion of that palace by his sweeping imagination.
The pleasure-dome of Kubla was a miracle of rare device. That was a rare speciment of architectural artistry and skill. In the architectural design and artistic execution that imaginative creation of Coleridge was all an unparalleled marvel. The dome of the palace was found brightened with sunlight, but the bottom had on all sides the caves of ice. Such a combination of sunlight and ice is a marvel of imagination.
The image denotes Coleridge’s romantic image-making. This image, however, finely demonstrates the combination of contraries. The sunny dome and the icy caves are basically contrary elements. Of course, there is, perhaps, a symbolic undertone here. The sunny dome is the image of hope and happiness, whereas icy caves stands for depression and gloom.
The vision of Abyssinian girl
An Abyssinian girl was playing on her instrument and singing all herself. Her spirit and sonority of song were touching and deeply impressed the poet. He wished to possess those in order to achieve rarity in his poetic creativity. If he could come to recapture and exercise her spirit and melody, he might create by his imagination some rare and wonderful poetic imagery. By his imagination, he would be able to create airy pleasure-dome of Kubla with its sunny dome and icy caves.
The conclusion of the poem Kubla Khan
In the concluding lines of Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan, the poet seems to have been possessed of an enchantment of an Abyssinian girl, playing on her dulcimer and singing of her native Mount Abora. The poet speculates how that enchantment would have affected others, who might have heard his impulsive poetical utterances. Coleridge here treats the poetic potency, nurtured by intensive imagination.
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