Poet's Corner

"Kubla Khan"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Poem explanation

1    In Xanadu did Kubla Khan



     A stately pleasure-dome decree:



     Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 



     Through caverns measureless to man



5           Down to a sunless sea.



          So twice five miles of fertile ground



          With walls and towers were girdled round:



     And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,



     Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;



10   And here were forests ancient as the hills,



     Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.





     But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted



     Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!



     A savage place! as holy and enchanted



15   As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted 



     By 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;



20   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.



25   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:



     And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far



30   Ancestral voices prophesying war!



        The shadow of the dome of pleasure



          Floated midway on the waves;



        Where was heard the mingled measure



          From the fountain and the caves.



35   It was a miracle of rare device,



     A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!





        A damsel with a dulcimer



        In a vision once I saw:



        It was an Abyssinian maid,



40      And on her dulcimer she play'd,



        Singing of Mount Abora.



        Could I revive within me



        Her symphony and song,



     To such a deep delight 'twould win me,



45   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!



50   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.

Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.