Kubla Khan
Uploaded by felicia beth on Jan 07, 2006
“Kubla Khan"
The poem “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Coleridge is a fabulous poem full of brilliant imagination. Coleridge expresses his dream. Coleridge’s use of imagery implies an idea which differentiates good and bad or dreamlike and reality.
Images of the “pleasure-dome”;a delightful place in his dream and “sacred river”; a holy and pure place in his dream, show as if Coleridge was demanding for a place of delight yet holy to be built in Xanadu.
But now, the lines suggest darkness of the seditious with images such as: “cavern” and “sunless sea”. Brightness is seen in the second and third lines but from line 3 we see darkness. Coleridge is showing a dream that turned into a nightmare. The “pleasure-dome” is first in “decree” then the “pleasure-dome is seen only as if a “shadow” then it becomes “A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice” showing a distinction between sunny and icy, symbolizing warmth of the sun and chill from the ice as if there were good and bad. The images of the women in the poem suggest the theme of good and bad: thus, one woman is “wailing for her demon-lover” while the other woman is the maid playing beautiful music.
Coleridge’s use of imagery suggests an idea which distinguishes between dreamlike and reality. The lines express scenery with words such as: “fertile ground”, “gardens bright”, “blossomed”, “tree”, “forests”, “hills” – All are “Enfolding sunny spots of greenery”. The first 12 lines we see images from a dream like world Kubla Khan is in, But from line 12 starts with the word “But…” showing a different perspective: all the brightness and good showed above comes to an end, thus, we see images such as: “waning moon”, “woman wailing”, “ceaseless turmoil seething”, “A mighty fountain momently was forced”.
Lines 12 on seems as if Coleridge were describing reality of life with images of bad things by using words like: “A savage place”, “mighty fountain” “woman…demon lover”, “lifeless ocean”, “rebounding hail”, “war” with only seeing a “shadow” of the “dome of pleasure”. Consequently, the image of the “pleasure-dome” is a delightful sight along with the images of the “bright gardens” and “blossoming trees” yet, the place of pleasure becomes a distressing place of bad, with images such as: “ceaseless turmoil seething” and “A mighty fountain momently forced”, “Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst”, “Huge fragments vaulted like...