Exploring Kubla Khan: Analysis and Interpretation, Course Name, Sem 1

This essay offers an analysis of S.T. Coleridge's poem, 'Kubla Khan', exploring its themes, imagery, and significance. The essay examines the poem's structure, focusing on the speaker's perspective, the depiction of nature, and the influence of the poet's experiences, including the impact of opium. It highlights the 'pleasure dome' of Xanadu, and the role of the 'sacred river', discussing the poem's romantic elements and the interplay between the speaker and Kubla Khan. The essay references academic sources, such as Amrullah (2016) and Tindol (2017), to support its interpretations and provide a comprehensive understanding of the poem. The analysis considers the poem's dream-like quality and the portrayal of both dangerous and beautiful aspects of nature.

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH
The entire poem Kubla Khan the famous British poet S.T. Coleridge has clarified the
different themes that are quite relevant in the two stanzas. This poem seems to be a poem of
fragment that the poet had written after his nap time and dreams he had seen during his nap. The
‘deep romantic chasm’ and the imaginations have connected the speaker and Kubla Khan
(Tindol, 2017).
The creation of the pleasure dome for Kubla Khan is one of those perspectives through
which the imagination of Coleridge is reflected. The praise of the nature has been done in this
poem as well like all other poems by Coleridge. Kubla Khan is not the speaker. Rather the
speaker is an unknown persona who has depicted the romantic chasm regarding the theme of the
poem (Amrullah, 2016). The speaker has also presented some threatening perspectives of nature
since quasi-demonic feature has also been exposed.
The major reason for Coleridge to write this kind of poem was due to the dream that he
had seen after being influenced by his intake of opium. However, the research work regarding
this poem has revealed that the last stanza of this poem had been added afterwards and this
stanza was not a direct impact his dream influenced by opium (Tindol, 2017). The depiction of
nature has been presented through dangerous terrains and this becomes the main feature of the
poem as well.
The successive feminine endings of the second stanza of the poem have been interrupted
by the ‘sacred river’ i.e. a male force (Amrullah, 2016). This was the perspective of the unknown
speaker and opim influenced dreams of the poet Coleridge regarding the dome of Xanadu that
Kubla Khan wanted to built.

2ENGLISH
References List
Amrullah, A. (2016). A Transformational Analysis of Anastrophe on Coleridge’s Kubla
Khan (Bachelor's thesis).
Tindol, R. (2017). Pleasure Domes and Sunbeams: An Anti-Oedipal Reading of “Kubla
Khan”. ANGLICA-An International Journal of English Studies, 26(1), 55-72.