Kubla Khan

Coleridge


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This poem is very fantastical. It seems like one of those images of (artistic) inspiration that pops into your head. The poem kicks off with a fictional river, called Alph. About a hundred years after the poem was written Griffith Taylor named a river in Antarctica after the fictional river of the poem (Wikipedia). The "sacred river" could also be a biblical allusion to the Jordan River. The "sunless sea" could also be a biblical allusion to the story of creation. "Now the earth was^a]"> formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Genesis 1:2). As the stanza continues land is added, as well as plants, and light sunny areas. It's not a mirror image as far as the perfect order to the creation, but it does allude to it.

I'm entirely confused as to what Coleridge meant by " holy and enchanted/as e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted/by women wailing for her demon lover!" Perhaps he was referring to the "face" on the moon and how it seems to be speaking (or wailing) toward the shadowy part of the moon. The imagery of the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) maid with the dulcimer evokes images of angels playing harps. This ethereal image is supported with the image of the sunny dome of ice, a very bright white light image. "Weave a circle around him thrice", who is the he? Perhaps "He" refers to God. The use of "thrice" or three could also refer to the trinity.

Coleridge uses repetition throughout the poem as a means of tying the very abstract plot together. Recurring phrases include: "sacred river ran", "caverns measureless to man", and "dome of pleasure. Alliteration is used in many places: "measureless to man", "sunless sea", "With walls", "sunny spots", "cedarn cover", "women wailing", "mazy motion". Rhyme is also used throughout: "ran/man", "ground/round", "rills/hills", "tree/greenery".