Kubla Khan

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1816

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Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Beginning and End of Art

The three primary characters in “Kubla Khan” are the Khan himself, the “damsel with a dulcimer” (Line 37), and the poetic speaker. All three are artistic types creating worlds through their particular artistic expressions. Although all create with varying degrees of success, their creations are temporal things, bound to disappear.

Kubla Khan creates his opulent “pleasure-dome” (Line 2) in the holy, haunted world of Xanadu. He builds his palace and its walls, along with the lush gardens within. The first stanza demonstrates the deliberate intent behind this kingdom--from its measurements to the “incense-bearing tree[s]” (Line 9) in the gardens.

The second creator in the poem is the spectral musician in the third stanza. The musical damsel is the speaker’s artistic ideal since her song inspires “deep delight” (Line 44) and heavenly visions in her hearers. The speaker claims if he possessed the damsel’s creative power, he could not only impress listeners with his poetic vision of Xanadu, but he would also convince them he is a supernatural being with “flashing eyes” and “floating hair” (Line 50). He uses conditional verbs like “would build” (Line 46) and “should cry” (Line 49), indicating he hasn’t yet captured the imaginations of his readers as Xanadu and the damsel have captured him.

The third stanza implies the speaker perceives his own poetry as deficient. In fact, some scholars point to the third stanza as evidence that Coleridge wrote this portion of the poem a time after its initial inspiration. The poet may comment on the incomplete nature of the poem within the poem itself. On the other hand, he may point out how the written word can never recreate the imagination’s wild and boundless landscape.

Throughout, loss threatens creativity. In the second stanza, “Kubla heard from far / Ancestral voices prophesying war!” (Lines 29-30) The kingdom he has created with such care may approach the brink of destruction. The messengers are not only the voices but also the roiling water--both beneath the earth and springing up in a fountain. This may indicate art’s insufficient power in the face of nature: a greater work of creation than anything manmade.

Likewise, the damsel and her dulcimer exist only in a passing vision, while the speaker regrets he cannot be someone else’s inspiring vision or produce a more impressive work. Nevertheless, the lament of the third stanza exists within a beloved poem, full of “music loud and long” (Line 45) in its own right.

The Power of Romantic Reverie

The Romantics valued poetry exultant of nature, the individual, emotion, and the imagination. In dreams, the imagination lets loose as the mind processes subterranean ideas and emotions. The premise of “Kubla Khan,” then, with its origins in a dream, provides a suitable occasion for Coleridge to explore Romantic ideals. From the outset, Coleridge foregrounds both his poem’s inspiration and, presumably, his hope for readers: They too will feel they have traveled to Xanadu in a dream.

The pleasant palace grounds of Kubla Khan’s dwelling drift by in the first stanza as Coleridge calls attention to the holy river, mysterious caves, and a castle existing purely for pleasure. The images, passing in a calm, dreamy array, highlight nature’s inherent beauty and importance.

In the more chaotic second stanza, Coleridge describes a “romantic chasm” (Line 12) hiding a woman consorting with a demon and an unruly fountain. These surreal images arise as though the speaker is a third-person omniscient narrator in a work of fiction. Although he doesn’t participate in the goings-on at Xanadu, he is an active observer whose language escalates as the fountain comes into view: “But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted / Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! / A savage place!” (Lines 12-14). The speaker's exclamations express his surprise and, perhaps, fear of or excitement in discovering this concentration of supernatural power within his dream world.

The poem contains dreams within dreams as well, further hearkening to its inspirational source. Kubla Khan experiences a kind of waking dream in the second stanza with the “Ancestral voices prophesying war!” (Line 30) from the sound of the fountain. He receives a mystical vision from the rumblings of nature and is powerless against it.

Further, Coleridge interrupts his portrayal of Xanadu to introduce a separate vision in the third stanza: “A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision once I saw [...]” (Lines 37-38). This shift pairs the poet’s dream about Xanadu with his dream of a preternaturally gifted musician. As he describes the damsel’s effect on him, the speaker worries he cannot, after all, transcend the dream world by making his vision real to others.

The final lines of the poem reestablish Coleridge’s otherworldly images with aspirations to appear terrifying after intimate contact with the world beyond. However, this rendering further reveals the poet’s imagination at work. The third stanza, together with the whole poem, seems to claim that dreams contain great art and artists must attempt to manifest their dreams for others.