Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Poetry Foundation

Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Poetry Foundation

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.

This poem dramatize the conflicts between his euphoric reality and things he can see but is struggling to understand that it is not possible.  The speaker first starts off by introducing Kubla Khan in this land called Xanadu and describing the vastness of all the land but especially addresses the particularly significance of the river's name 'Alph' (3-5).  These acts apply that the speaker juxtaposes by transforming the person to place.  The imagery given about the vast land suggest a dreamy awe from the speaker perspective as it is being bewildered describing it as 'caverns measureless to man', that .  Since the speaker drew out the pairing of the landscape with the realities what a man ponders-of that being Kubla Khan, it the next stanza in the poem, the emphasis is how the experience of looking at the architecture and describing it lyrically with beautiful words.  It underlines the speakers sense of security, in lines 4 till about 11, where the forest is used in a personification by becoming alive.  The third stanza the rhyme scheme is pattern is slowed down by the language "But, oh!", a strategic point where the speaker stresses abruptly.  Than continues into tying it back to the river is almost cruel euphoric reality of distortion however the relieving of the speakers re-illustration of the geography of Xanadu.  In, especially the river.  It is so significant to the speaker that as connection is made with the reader: the river given a double meaning, even though it's cutting in the hills it presents a characterization of it dramatic irony nature.  The speakers sense of harmonious overall effect of the structure of the poem allowing the reader to connect to the enthusiasm but as it continues there is a gloomy effect when the speaker brings another alternate sort of place with a mysterious woman as well.  Based upon my general sense of the poem the poet develops his themes to be in a pattern form with dreams.   
The poet's choice of words through the rest of the poem gives it lyrical form very beautifully and over all story is about a boy's patriotism and awe of where he lives.