Kubla Khan

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1816

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The River

Scholars have long debated the meaning of Coleridge’s images in “Kubla Khan.” Just as dreams have many interpretations, so too does this dream-inspired poem. However, it is clear that the river in the poem deserves consideration, as the poet pays ample attention to it.

Alph, the name of the “sacred river” (Line 3), a five-mile-long body of water “meandering with a mazy motion” (Line 25). The river travels through the verdant land and plunges underground into the foreboding “caverns measureless to man” (Line 4), becoming a “lifeless ocean […]” (Line 28). Coleridge repeatedly draws readers’ attention to the river’s pleasant passage above ground and its mysterious life in the caves.

Various critics have suggested the river is a symbol for creativity, inspiration, the imagination, or the mind. Just as the river is a source of the land’s abundance, it may be Coleridge’s conception of the creative wellspring from which art derives. Like the river, the imagination can “meande[r] with a mazy motion” (Line 25) or spout with torrential ideas, like the fountain.

Others see the river as key to the poem’s natural imagery. Coleridge may have portrayed this river as fueling the magical landscape and ultimately placing man at its mercy with its sudden, prophetic fountain. The poem welcomes these various interpretations, as its images and language contain ample flexibility for readers to explore.

The Fountain

The gushing fountain in the second stanza is a similarly powerful but ambiguous symbol. Coleridge introduces it with its source in Xanadu, the chasm “haunted / By woman wailing for her demon-lover!” (Line 15-16). From here, the fountain comes, supercharged with mystical power. The poet portrays the fountain issuing from an excited, overwhelmed world that pants and, in a mighty gust, explodes the ground above with a geyser of water. The fountain proves so large and forceful that “It flung up momently the sacred river” (Line 24). The calm, mighty river recoils at this great disruption.

This fountain may be a further symbol of nature’s uncanny power to undo mankind. After all, from the fountain’s sound come the “Ancestral voices prophesying war” (Line 30). This natural phenomenon issuing from a magical source carries untold power and disturbs Kubla Khan’s peace. Alternatively, the fountain may symbolize a sudden inspiration in an artist’s mind (such as the events that inspired this very poem), if the river is the source of creativity.

Kubla Khan

Scholars often interpret the Kubla Khan figure as a symbol for the poet himself. Like an artist, the Khan creates an orderly yet beautiful world for pleasure’s sake. He establishes his “stately pleasure-dome” (Line 2) and surrounds it with an enclosure and gardens. He commits his plans with great intentionality, but, like Coleridge the poet, loses a portion of his masterpiece to a fateful interruption.

Additionally, Kubla Khan may be the pride of man, intent on bending nature to his will. The “ancient” (Line 10) and “enchanted” (Line 14) land is the Romantic epitome of beautiful, heavenly nature. Kubla Khan may enter Xanadu with some hubris and “decree” (Line 2) orders that the land itself will reject. Not only does an opposing kingdom bring war, but the elements themselves bring the omen to the Khan’s ears. Nature, with its mystical powers, may be capable of thwarting those who threaten its wildness.