An In-Depth Analysis of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' Poem

This essay offers a comprehensive analysis of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, 'Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment.' It delves into the poem's structure, including its division into stanzas and its use of iambic tetrameter and rhyme schemes. The analysis examines the speaker's role in describing Kubla Khan's palace at Xanadu, the imagery employed to evoke the grandeur of the setting, and the symbolic elements present. The essay explores the use of literary devices such as alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, similes, and metaphors. It also touches upon the poem's fragmented nature and its connection to the Romantic era, discussing the poet's use of imagination and the themes of vision and dream. The essay concludes by summarizing the poem's key elements, including the descriptions of the palace, the river Alph, and the Abyssinian maid, along with the narrator's reflections on recreating the poem's musicality and the vision of a warlord, offering a holistic understanding of Coleridge's masterpiece.

1KUBLA KHAN - AN ANALYSIS
KUBLA KHAN - AN ANALYSIS
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Author Note
The poem “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment” was composed by the
celebrated poet of the Romantic era, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The poem was reportedly
completed in the year 1797 however, the poem was published in the year 1816. The author
opines that the poem was composed when the poet was under the influence of opium. The poet is
reported to have composed the poem in discussion, “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A
Fragment”, while being under the haze of opium. The following essay deals with the analysis of
the poem on the light of several constituents that are related to the composition of the poem.
The speaker of “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment”, is unknown to the
reader. The speaker of the poem is observed to be retelling the readers of the journey of Kubla
Khan to Xanadu. There are discrepancies in the views that are shared by the scholars regarding
the speaker as well as the setting of the poem. Some scholars believe that the poem is all about
the great Mongolian emperor, Kubla Khan, who had his summer palace at a beautiful place
named Xanadu (Longenbach). The scholars, however, agree on the fact that the speaker of the
poem is an unnamed individual. The speaker of the poem serves the purpose of the describing
the localities wherein the palace is located. In the first section of the poem, the speaker attempts
to describe the grand palace that is present in Xanadu. The speaker of the poem describes the
grandeur and the lavish nature of the palace all through the first part of the poem. The speaker

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proceeds to describe the melodious voice of an Abyssinian maid who had been singing near the
palace and describes the vision in the closing section of the poem.
The poem consists of four major stanzas divided into two sections. The poem is known to
be a fragmented poem. The first three stanzas deal with the summer palace of Kubla Khan and
the grandeur of the place. This section aims at the description of the palace and the beauty of the
area wherein the palace is situated. The poet in this section is observed to have been offering his
readers with a vivid description of the palace, the surroundings of the palace, the interiors of the
palace. The poet even offers a description of the Abyssinian maid who has been observed to be
singing about “Mount Abora” (Longenbach). The second part consists of the vivid description of
the vision that was dreamt of by the poet. The poem is written in the rhythmic iambic tetrameter.
This pattern is also known as the form of the poem. The iambic form of poem composition refers
to the fact that the poem is composed majorly of bi-syllabic units. The stress of the words lies
majorly on the second syllable.
The poem follows alternative rhyme schemes. The first stanza of the poem follows the
rhyme scheme, abaabccddede. The rhyme scheme of the second stanza changes to the expansion
into the tetrameter and follows the abaabccddffgghiihjj rhyme scheme. The tetrameter finds
usage in the third stanza as well. The tetrameter in the third stanza is observed to have tightened
and the rhyme scheme followed is ababcc. The fourth stanza of the poem is observed to have
been continuing with the pattern of the third stanza and the rhyme scheme followed in this
section is the abccbdedefgfffghhg pattern of rhyme. The poem is composed in blank verse.
The poet uses certain areas of alliteration within the poem like “measureless to man” (line
4), “sunless sea” (line 5), “five miles of fertile” (line 6). The poet uses certain areas of assonance
within the poem like “twice five” (line 6), “there were” (line 8), “chaffy grain” (line 22). The

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poet uses certain areas of onomatopoeia within the poem like the “wailing” (line 16) of the
Abyssinian maid, “Five miles meandering with a mazy motion” (line 25). The poet tends to
avoid the parallel structures within the composition of the poem.
The poem is known to use a number of connotative devices. The poem uses similes to put
forth a vivid diagram towards the readers of the poem.
“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
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:” (lines 17 - 22)
An example of metaphor within the poem is exemplified as under.
“Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,” (lines 41-2)
The poet uses a number of symbols within the poem like “a sunless sea”, “on honey-dew
hath fed” and so on. The poem itself is based on the romantic irony. The poet is argued to have
presented a pure figment of his imagination in the given poem. The scholars often argue that the
poet had aimed to present a rare unification of the imagination. (Longenbach) The scholars
further suggest that the unification is often faced with undermining by the various disruptive

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forces of the human psyche like morality, rationality and self-doubt. The poet discusses a huge
number of imageries within the given poem due to the fact that the poem basically deals with a
dream, a figment of the imagination of the poet
The above discussion might be summed up with a proper summarization of the poem in
discussion, “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment” composed by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge. The composition opens with the description of the palace in Xanadu. the poet
describes the area to be the one that is crossed by the river Alph on its journey towards the sea.
The poet proceeds to discuss the scenery that is [present within the security walls of the palace.
The narrator states that amidst all this beauty, Kubla could still hear the call for war. The narrator
also attempts to describe an Abyssinian maid whom he had chanced upon and further states that
he could not recreate the music that he had been playing even if he wanted to do so. The narrator
ends the poem with the vision of a warlord preparing for war.

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Work Cited
Longenbach, James. "Lyric Poetry for Beginners." Literary Imagination 20.1 (2018): 22-28.