Kubla Khan
In 1798, a poet named Samuel Taylor Coleridge
wrote the poem called "Kubla
Khan". In his preface, he stated that he had
dreamt the poem, and wrote it
down just as it was "preserved". The speaker
also stated that the poem is
merely a fragment, it is not complete. "With the
exception of about eight or
ten scattered lines and images" that had been
lost in the transition between
sleep and being awake. In the first stanza, it
seemed that the speaker was
talking of a far away land, Xanadu. Kubla Khan
was the leader of this land. This
land had a sacred river running through it.
It had many spots of greenery around
it with forests that were almost
"ancient". In lines one and two it says,
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A
stately pleasure dome decree". What could that
mean? It could perhaps imply
that Kubla Khan is a leader of some type, and he
lives in a "stately" palace.
The speaker used the word dome instead of
palace. Perhaps in his dream he saw
a dome as big or a stately as a palace, and
that is where Kubla Khan lived.
In the second stanza, the speaker goes on to
describe the land of Xanadu. He
says that there is a cedar forest that is
haunted by a "woman wailing for her
demon-lover." "A mighty fountain
momently was forced... ...Huge fragments
vaulted like rebounding hail... ...It
flung up momently the sacred river...
...And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from
far Ancestral voices prophesying
war!" It seems, in lines 17-31, that there
could possibly be a war started.
It is never said why the war was started or if
there in fact is really a war,
but after that sequence of lines the speaker goes
into another rant. He said
that there was a "sunny pleasure-dome with caves of
ice." It is not
understood what the voice is trying to get across to the
reader in this line.
It is known that ice does not exist in the sun, at least
not for long, so
does this mean that there is not really a dome at all? After
talking about
the dome, the mask speaks of a damsel in the pleasure dome. The
damsel was
playing the dulcimer. The persona also says how the damsel could win
his
heart by playing the instrument. After those few off-set lines, the
speaker
goes on to say that he would build the dome in the sky, and that all
that heard
about it would see it there and yell "beware, beware!" To whom
they would
yell this is unclear. The last couple of lines seem to be talking
about Kubla
Khan. ..."His flashing eyes, his floating hair..." He must
have been a sight
to see. The voice also says that he "drank the milk of
paradise." That could
potentially mean that he lived a life of luxury and was
a very mighty leader. In
research done with help of the World Wide Web, it
was found that Samuel
Coleridge was addicted to a drug much like today’s
Acid. Could that signify
that Mr. Coleridge might have been on a "trip" when
he wrote this poem, and
that is why it remained unfinished and a fragment? Or
quite possibly, it could
be that Mr. Coleridge was just dreaming of the
wonderful world of Kubla Khan.