Kubla Khan Essay, Research Paper

In 1798, a poet named Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the poem called ?Kubla

Khan?. In his preface, he stated that he had dreamt the poem, and wrote it

down just as it was ?preserved?. The speaker also stated that the poem is

merely a fragment, it is not complete. ?With the exception of about eight or

ten scattered lines and images? that had been lost in the transition between

sleep and being awake. In the first stanza, it seemed that the speaker was

talking of a far away land, Xanadu. Kubla Khan was the leader of this land. This

land had a sacred river running through it. It had many spots of greenery around

it with forests that were almost ?ancient?. In lines one and two it says,

?In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree?. What could that

mean? It could perhaps imply that Kubla Khan is a leader of some type, and he

lives in a ?stately? palace. The speaker used the word dome instead of

palace. Perhaps in his dream he saw a dome as big or a stately as a palace, and

that is where Kubla Khan lived. In the second stanza, the speaker goes on to

describe the land of Xanadu. He says that there is a cedar forest that is

haunted by a ?woman wailing for her demon-lover.? ?A mighty fountain

momently was forced? ?Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail? ?It

flung up momently the sacred river? ?And ?mid this tumult Kubla heard from

far Ancestral voices prophesying war!? It seems, in lines 17-31, that there

could possibly be a war started. It is never said why the war was started or if

there in fact is really a war, but after that sequence of lines the speaker goes

into another rant. He said that there was a ?sunny pleasure-dome with caves of

ice.? It is not understood what the voice is trying to get across to the

reader in this line. It is known that ice does not exist in the sun, at least

not for long, so does this mean that there is not really a dome at all? After

talking about the dome, the mask speaks of a damsel in the pleasure dome. The

damsel was playing the dulcimer. The persona also says how the damsel could win

his heart by playing the instrument. After those few off-set lines, the speaker

goes on to say that he would build the dome in the sky, and that all that heard

about it would see it there and yell ?beware, beware!? To whom they would

yell this is unclear. The last couple of lines seem to be talking about Kubla

Khan. ??His flashing eyes, his floating hair?? He must have been a sight

to see. The voice also says that he ?drank the milk of paradise.? That could

potentially mean that he lived a life of luxury and was a very mighty leader. In

research done with help of the World Wide Web, it was found that Samuel

Coleridge was addicted to a drug much like today?s Acid. Could that signify

that Mr. Coleridge might have been on a ?trip? when he wrote this poem, and

that is why it remained unfinished and a fragment? Or quite possibly, it could

be that Mr. Coleridge was just dreaming of the wonderful world of Kubla Khan.