Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment is an unfinished poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, said to have been inspired by an opium-induced dream after reading a text about the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. It’s an exploration of imagination, creation, and the power of nature.
Here is a line-by-line explanation of the poem:
Part I: The Pleasure-Dome and the Sacred River
This section establishes the setting: a lush, magical landscape created by the ruler Kubla Khan. Line(s) Text Explanation 1-2 In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: The poem begins in Xanadu, the historical summer capital of the Mongol Empire. Kubla Khan, the ruler, ordered the building of a magnificent palace or park, a “stately pleasure-dome.”
3-5 Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea. This river, Alph (likely symbolic of the creative, unconscious mind), flows through enormous caves and ultimately empties into a dark, unknown, sunless sea (possibly death, the unconscious, or oblivion). This contrasts the grand, ordered dome with wild, uncontrollable nature.
6-7 So twice five miles of fertile ground / With walls and towers were girdled round: A total of ten miles (twice five) of rich, productive land were enclosed by walls and towers, marking the extent of Kubla’s ordered domain.
8-11 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. Inside the walls are beautiful gardens with winding streams (rills), fragrant trees, and old forests with sunny clearings. This describes a perfect, diverse, ordered paradise. Part II: The Chasm and the Geyser The focus shifts dramatically to a wild, untamed gorge and the explosive source of the sacred river.
Line(s) 12-16 But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted / Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! / A savage place! as holy and enchanted / As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted / By woman wailing for her demon-lover! A sudden exclamation draws attention to a deep, dramatic gorge (chasm). It’s a terrifying, primal, and savage place, suggesting untamed nature, supernatural forces, and dark, obsessive passion (the woman wailing for her “demon-lover”).
17-18 And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, / As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, The chasm is active and restless, boiling with chaotic energy (seething turmoil). The description of the earth “breathing” personifies the planet, suggesting a powerful, almost sexual or violent geological force.
19-24 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: / And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever / It flung up momently the sacred river. A great geyser (mighty fountain) erupts constantly, throwing up massive rock fragments like bouncing hail or grain being threshed. This explosion is the violent, natural source of the sacred river Alph.
25-28 Five miles meandering with a mazy motion / Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, / Then reached the caverns measureless to man, / And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: The river flows in a winding, confusing path (mazy motion) for five miles, through the landscape and into the great caves, where it finally falls noisily into a dead, lifeless ocean (a sea without life or hope).
29-30 And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far / Ancestral voices prophesying war! While listening to the river’s tumultuous end, Kubla hears warning voices from his ancestors, suggesting that the fleeting perfection of his pleasure-dome is threatened by an external force or future conflict (war).
31-36 The shadow of the dome of pleasure / Floated midway on the waves; / Where was heard the mingled measure / From the fountain and the caves. / It was a miracle of rare device, / A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! An image of perfect, contradictory beauty: the dome’s reflection (shadow) is seen on the water, blending the sound of the exploding fountain with the sound of the subterranean river. The final lines of this section describe the dome as a miraculous creation, a paradox of a sunny dome and chilling caves of ice. Part III: The Vision and the Creative Power The speaker shifts from describing Kubla’s creation to his own potential to re-create the vision through poetry.
Line(s) 37-41 A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision once I saw: / It was an Abyssinian maid, / And on her dulcimer she played, / Singing of Mount Abora. The speaker recalls a prior vision (the poem’s source is a “vision in a dream”). He saw a maiden from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) playing a dulcimer (a stringed instrument) and singing about Mount Abora (a name associated with paradise or Eden). She represents pure, unmediated poetic inspiration.
42-49 Could I revive within me / Her symphony and song, / To such a deep delight ‘twould win me, / 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! If the speaker could recall the maid’s song, its inspiration would be so powerful that he could re-create Kubla’s dome purely through his poetry (build that dome in air). The power of the created work would be terrifying, causing onlookers to cry out in awe and fear (Beware! Beware!).
50-54 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 poem ends with the audience’s reaction to the inspired poet (the “him”). He has a wild, inspired look (flashing eyes, floating hair), suggesting prophetic madness. The listeners are warned to fear his creative power, like a supernatural being. His food and drink—honey-dew (manna, divine food) and milk of Paradise—suggest he is divinely inspired, a conduit for the sacred, dangerous power of pure creation.