Kubla Khan

In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round :And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

Xanadu was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China,

before he decided to move the seat of his dynasty to the Jin Dynasty capital of

Zhōngdū, which he renamed Dàdū, the present-day Beijing.

Kublai Khan: (September 23, 1215 – February 18,

1294); the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from

1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China.

The references to Xanadu and Kubla Khan link to the

characteristic of exoticism, they also serve to place the

poem in a time and place. To what extent do we see the

characteristic of medievalism in this poem?

The syntax is inverted, in the first line, giving an imperious tone.

syntax = the grammatical arrangement of wordsimperious = domineering, arrogant, overbearing

Kubla Khan

In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round :And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

The references to Xanadu and Kubla Khan link to the

characteristic of exoticism, they also serve to place the

poem in a time and place. To what extent do we see the

characteristic of medievalism in this poem?

The syntax is inverted, in the first line, giving an imperious tone.

syntax = the grammatical arrangement of wordsimperious = domineering, arrogant, overbearing

The name "Alph" might also make us think of the Greek letter "Alpha" which is the first

letter of the Greek alphabet, and a symbol of beginnings.

First four lines have a clear rhythm (iambic tetrameter)

and rhyme sequence. Gives it a drum-like, marching feel,

that matches the royal connotations from the first

two lines.

Kubla Khan

In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round :And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

The references to Xanadu and Kubla Khan link to the

characteristic of exoticism, they also serve to place the

poem in a time and place. To what extent do we see the

characteristic of medievalism in this poem?

The syntax is inverted, in the first line, giving an imperious tone.

syntax = the grammatical arrangement of wordsimperious = domineering, arrogant, overbearing

The name "Alph" might also make us think of the Greek letter "Alpha" which is the first

letter of the Greek alphabet, and a symbol of beginnings.

First four lines have a clear rhythm (iambic tetrameter)

and rhyme sequence. Gives it a drum-like, marching feel,

that matches the royal connotations from the first

two lines.

Language becomes more

positively emotive.

fertilesinuous

blossomedsunny spots of

greenery

'girdled' = surrounded'sinuous =

winding'rill' = small river

Note that the new environment is

smaller and manageable, and

thereby more inviting to the

senses

The language in lines 6 - 11 is now more positive. The place is inviting. Unlike the previous setting which had a sense of the unknown with its 'caverns measureless to man' and the horror of a 'sunless sea' this place is well-defined -

'twice five miles' and safe - 'girdled round' and 'enfolded'. Coleridge uses highly descriptive language 'sinuous rills' and 'incense bearing tree'. The image the reader is left with is of a safe and happy place. This is a good place, and

could link to the Romantics view of nature as being a positive and nurturing power.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slantedDown the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !A savage place ! as holy and enchantedAs e'er beneath a waning moon was hauntedBy 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 :

Passionate exclamation, which shows the poet's

feelings towards the place

deep suggests its size combined with the connotations in chasm

emphasizes the great size

Chasm = yawning fissure, deep cleft, gorge Athwart = from side to side, crosswise

cedarn cover =

the hillside is covered in cedar

trees

The river is shown to be

violent completely

different to the sinuous rills of

earlier

The use of exclamatio

n marks conveys

excitement

Waning Moon means the

moon is decreasing in size, moving from the Full

Moon towards the New Moon. This is a time for spells that

banish, release, reverse.

Coleridge creates a series of contrasts

(dichotomies). He continues

the comparison by saying that it is a savage a place as there

could be

There are a number of images of fertility in this section:

*green * lover There is also near sexual images in the final lines

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up momently the sacred river.Five miles meandering with a mazy motionThrough wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Coleridge creates images of power and

intensity as the river collides with rocks, sending up plumes of

water.

The river is likened to

hail or chaff falling to the

ground

The river has bee described as a passionate, violent entity. In the last 2 lines the tone changes. The

alliteration on the 'm' slows the pace of the lines. Combined with the word meandering and mazy motion

we get an image of e river slowing down. This can be seen to be an example of the cyclical nature of his

poems as we are back to the start again.

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from farAncestral voices prophesying war !

The shadow of the dome of pleasureFloated midway on the waves ;Where was heard the mingled measureFrom the fountain and the caves.

Repetition of images from the beginning of the poem

Tumult = noisy disturbance, mental or emotional disturbance

Images from his past/ancestors.

Takes us into the next section

of the poemDescription of

the scene. Rhyme scheme

and rhythm emphasize the pleasant scene

and sounds

It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice ! A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw :It was an Abyssinian maid,And on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora.Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight 'twould win me,

Tempo changes,

quick sounds

Further contrasts (sun - ice)

There are many contrasts

between the dome and

cavern:* natural v man-

made* above ground v below ground* symmetrical v

irregular* sunny v frozen

The opposites clashing gives the em a lot of

kits energy

Poet tells us of a new vision

Damsel = young, in married woman

Conflicting views on Mt Abora

* real place in Ethiopia

* biblical reference* place mentioned

in Paradise Lost

The key to this new vision is not to over think it. It is a fond memory (shown in the last line - positive/emotive word delight.) Coleridge clearly is referring to a time which he wishes he could bring back (a better time - link to anti-industry?) The

vision then becomes a metaphor.

That with music loud and long,I would build that dome in air,That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !And all who heard should see them there,And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !His flashing eyes, his floating hair !Weave a circle round him thrice,And close your eyes with holy dread,For he on honey-dew hath fed,And drunk the milk of Paradise.

The link that we see earlier

continues here. The poet wants to

revive the music he remembers. If he could do that he believes he could create amazing

things.

Pausanias

Pausanias was a Greek travel writer in the second century AD, who described natural phenomena, and cities, covering their daily life, ceremonies, beliefs, and artwork in such detail that even today we can recognize what he was talking about.

Coleridge's copy of Thomas Taylor's 1794 translation (Pausanias, The Description of Greece, translated by Thomas Taylor, 1794)ended up in William Wordsworth's library. Coleridge had probably read the original Greek, as well.  Alph, the first of rivers

The story of the river Alpheus descending into the earth, and then rising up in fountains appears in Pausanias, whom Coleridge probably read in the original, as well as in Thomas Taylor's translation.

Coleridge could not get enough of Taylor, according to Lowes. Speaking of this story, Lowes says that Coleridge "Could scarcely have escaped it in Pausanias."

Pausanias does draw an explicit parallel between the Nile and the Alpheus, a connection that Lowes feels lies behind much of the imagery in Kubla Khan. Like Alph, the sacred river in Kubla Khan, the Alpheus runs far below the earth, emerges in a fountain, and runs toward the sea. Text

But the Alpheus appears to possess something different from other rivers; for it often hides itself in the earth, and again rises out of it. Thus it…merges itself in the Tegeatic land. Ascending from hence in Asaea, and mingling itself with the water of Eurotas, it falls a second time into the earth, emerges from hence, in that place which the Arcadians call the fountains, and running through the Pisaean and Olympian plains, pours itself into the sea…Nor can the agitation of the Adriatic sea restrain its course; for running through this mighty and violent sea, it mingles itself with the water of Arethusa in Ortygia…retaining its ancient name Alpheus.

John Livingston Lowes (December 20, 1867, Decatur, Indiana – August 15, 1945, Boston, Massachusetts) was an American scholar of English literature, specializing in Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Geoffrey Chaucer.

Lowes's most famous work is The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination (Houghton Mifflin, 1927), which examines the sources of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. Using Coleridge's notebook and other papers at the Bristol Library, Lowes put together a list of books that the poet read before and during the time he composed his poems.

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Iambic tetrameter is a meter (the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse) in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four iambic feet.

An iamb consists of a short syllable followed by a long syllable.

The word "tetrameter" simply means that there are four feet in the line. A line of iambic tetrameter consists of four such feet in a row:

da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM

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