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    Kubla Khan

    Uploaded by

    Yāsha
    This poem describes a vision of a paradise created by Kubla Khan. It depicts a stately pleasure-dome with beautiful gardens and a sacred river. However, nature threatens to overcome man's attempts to build an earthly paradise, as seen in the contrasts between creation and destruction in the poem. In the end, the vision cannot be fully recalled, showing how perfection can never be achieved by human hands alone.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Kubla Khan

    Uploaded by

    Yāsha
    286 views5 pages
    This poem describes a vision of a paradise created by Kubla Khan. It depicts a stately pleasure-dome with beautiful gardens and a sacred river. However, nature threatens to overcome man's attempts to build an earthly paradise, as seen in the contrasts between creation and destruction in the poem. In the end, the vision cannot be fully recalled, showing how perfection can never be achieved by human hands alone.

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    This poem describes a vision of a paradise created by Kubla Khan. It depicts a stately pleasure-dome with beautiful gardens and a sacred river. However, nature threatens to overcome man's attempts to build an earthly paradise, as seen in the contrasts between creation and destruction in the poem. In the end, the vision cannot be fully recalled, showing how perfection can never be achieved by human hands alone.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    286 views5 pages

    Kubla Khan

    Uploaded by

    Yāsha
    This poem describes a vision of a paradise created by Kubla Khan. It depicts a stately pleasure-dome with beautiful gardens and a sacred river. However, nature threatens to overcome man's attempts to build an earthly paradise, as seen in the contrasts between creation and destruction in the poem. In the end, the vision cannot be fully recalled, showing how perfection can never be achieved by human hands alone.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 5
    At a glance
    Powered by AI
    The poem describes a dream vision of the paradise-like dome created by Kubla Khan and contrasts between natural elements.

    The poem is about a man's desire to build a paradise for himself but nature always thwarts his attempts.

    The contrasts between elements like chasms and hills create a sense of the sublime and unknowable in nature.

    Kubla Khan I would build that dome in air,

    Samuel Taylor Coleridge That sunny dome! those caves of ice!


    And all who heard should see them there,
    IN Xanadu did Kubla Khan And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
    A stately pleasure-dome decree: His flashing eyes, his floating hair! 50
    Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Weave a circle round him thrice,
    Through caverns measureless to man And close your eyes with holy dread,
    Down to a sunless sea. 5 For he on honey-dew hath fed,
    So twice five miles of fertile ground And drunk the milk of Paradise.
    With walls and towers were girdled round:
    And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
    Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree; 1. Find 4 Romantic symbols/ideas/motifs. Connect
    And here were forests ancient as the hills, 10 them with larger themes of the poem.
    Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

    But O, 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 15
    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 20
    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. 2. “Kubla Khan” is filled with contrasts. Track these
    Five miles meandering with a mazy motion 25 oppositions as you read the poem. What is the effect of
    Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, the contrasts between, for example, chasms and hills
    Then reach'd the caverns measureless to man, (ll. 12-13)?
    And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
    And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far 3. How does Coleridge achieve the chant-like quality in
    the poem?
    Ancestral voices prophesying war! 30
    4. How does the first part of the poem (ll. 1-30) differ
    The shadow of the dome of pleasure
    from the second part of the poem (ll. 31-54)? What
    Floated midway on the waves; causes the change? What causes the change? What
    Where was heard the mingled measure does the shift offer in the way of an explanation for the
    From the fountain and the caves. poem’s meaning?
    It was a miracle of rare device, 35
    A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! 5. Characterize the speaker in the poem.

    A damsel with a dulcimer 6. The poem has been interpreted many ways. Some
    In a vision once I saw: consider it a straightforward portrayal of Coleridge’s
    It was an Abyssinian maid, opium-induced hallucination; others believe it to be
    And on her dulcimer she play'd, 40 about the beauty of creation. Consider several
    Singing of Mount Abora. possibilities. What is your interpretation?
    Could I revive within me,
    Her symphony and song,
    To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
    That with music loud and long, 45
    Explain how Coleridge seems to indicate man's desire to
    return to Eden, and also how Nature always thwarts man's
    attempts.

    this poem describes man's desire to build a paradise for


    oneself.
    According to Coleridge's Preface to Kubla Khan, the poem was
    composed one night after he experienced an opium-influenced
    dream after reading a work describing Xanadu, the summer palace
    of the Mongol ruler and Emperor of China Kublai Khan. Upon
    waking, he set about writing lines of poetry that came to him from
    the dream until he was interrupted by a person from Porlock. The
    poem could not be completed according to its original 200–300
    line plan as the interruption caused him to forget the lines.
    1. Freewrite for exactly 90 seconds on the
    following prompt: Describe a dream you had
    recently. Be as vivid as you can for this
    timeframe. Do not allow yourself to use
    reason or rationality to filter your thoughts.
    Just write as much as you can.
    2. Draw Xanadu. Connect specific words, phrases, or lines to your
    response.

    3. What are some contrasting images the poem presents? What effects do
    they have?

    4. There appears to be a big shift after line 30. What happens and what
    do you think causes it?

    5. Find one theme the poem has. Be able to justify your opinion. This
    may be difficult!

    6. Find 3 Romantic symbols or ideas or motifs.

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