Kubla Khan by S.T. Coleridge - Short Questions and Answers

 Kubla Khan

S.T. Coleridge

Kubla Khan - (Short Questions and Answers)

1. Who was Kubla Khan? How was ‘Kubla Khan’ composed?

Answer: Kubla Khan, a historical figure, was the grandson of Genghis Khan (1162 - 1227) and the founder of the Mongolian Empire. He was also a great conqueror who completed the subjugation of China.

In the introductory note to the poem, Coleridge described how he had been taking opium, and fallen asleep when he reading a sentence from a travel book, “Purchas Pilgrimage”, concerning Kubla’s palace and the wall around its gardens. Here Kubla Khan commanded to build a palace and a safety garden there unto and thus 10 miles of fertile ground were enclosed with a wall.

2. What is ‘Xanadu’?

Answer: ‘Xanadu’ was the summer capital of Kubla Khan. The name ‘Xanadu’ is taken from one of the passages in ‘Purchase Pilgrimage’ the story of which inspired the poem: In Xanadu, Kubla Khan built a stately palace. Xanadu also gives us a sense of remoteness in space and time as remoteness is the essence of romance and it helps in making the supernatural elements of the poem more convincing.

3. “Singing on Mount Abora” – Explain the reference to “Mount Abora"

Answer: ‘Mounot Abora' the imaginary name of a mountain, combines that of the river , Abora, a tributary of the Nile with Mt. Amara is a real mountain which is mentioned in two of Coleridge’s sources, “Pilgrimage” by Samuel Purchas and Milton's description of paradise in “Paradise Lost”.

4. Bring out the touch of supernaturalism in the poem, Kubla Khan.

Answer: The unique mark of Coleridge’s artistry raises the poem from the region of everyday realities to that of a supernatural world; The very mountain of ‘Xanadu’, ‘Alph',  ‘Abora’ and the ‘Abyssinian maid’ evoke associations of remoteness mystery and strangeness.

The woman waiting for the demon-lover, the chasm ‘seeing with ceaseless turmoil’, ‘the earth breathing in thick pants’, the huge fragments thrown up by the waves, ‘the caverns measure to man’, ‘the poet with his flashing eyes’, ‘his floating hairs fade on honey do a governs method to men’,’ the plate with his flashing eyes’, ‘his floating hairs fade on honey dew’ and ‘milk of paradise’- all these are touches which make the poem a supernatural world.

5. “It was miracle of rare device/ A sunny pleasure-dome – ice!” - Elucidate.

Answer: The ‘pleasure dome’ was built somewhere midway between the fountain and the immeasurably deep caves. The palace has marvelous architecture skill. It stood bath in the sunlight and on all sides of it was ice. Their edifice was created in an ice-bound region.

In these lines, the image drawn by the poet, Coleridge is an absolute miracle because of nature's two opposing forces - the heat of the sun and the ice - perfect balance and harmony. Coleridge may be referring to his theory that poetic imagination requires a balance between opposing forces.

6. Is Kubla Khan an extraction of a poem or a poetic oeuvre?

Answer: The structure of the poem, Kubla Khan is really divided into two parts. The first, which consists of three stanzas, describes Xanadu as if Coleridge was actually feeling the place first hand. The second part of the poem is filled with the desire to stay in Xanadu, but Coleridge is unable to capture that experience again.

The two parts may initially seem unconnected but the ideas in both parts of the poem link this section together by showing that even the ruler cannot have control over the forces of nature and the writer over his imagination.

Both parts of the poem deal with the attempt to create a sense that Kubla Khan has built a pleasure dome and Coleridge is trying to use his language to create the perfection of his dream with words.

7. Bring out the symbolism of Kubla Khan?

Answer: Symbolism is the cheap criterion of the poetic craftsmanship of Kubla Khan. There is a sacred river that runs into ‘caverns measureless’ to man and ‘sunless sea'. 

That is the river runs into ‘Infinity of death’ symbolizing ‘life the ceaseless turmoil’ the fountain forced out with ‘half intermitted burst' ‘the chaffy grain beneath the flail’ suggest the dynamic engineering of birth and creation.

A waving moon and a woman waiting for her demon lover might have suggested the Mystic glamour of sex. The ‘measureless to man' might suggest infinity and nothingness. The ancestral voice suggests the dark compulsion that birds the race to its habitual conflicts.

8. What is the importance of ‘decree’?

Do you think the ‘pleasure-dome’ was ever built or only decreed?

Answer: The importance of the word ‘decree’ is order and power of Kubla Khan. So, it proves that his ordered was obeyed. In the land of Xanadu, the ‘pleasure dome’ was built by the ‘decree’ of Kubla Khan.

9. What does the vision of the ‘damsel with dulcimer’ represent to the poet?

Answer: The ‘damsel with dulcimer’ represents some kind of perfect harmony of sight and sound to the poet. The speaker said he once saw "a damsel (girl) with a dulcimer", an Abyssinian maid who played her dulcimer and sang "Mount Abora". He says that if he can revive "his symphony and song" in him, he will rebuild the ‘pleasure-dome’ of music and that those who have heard him will be careful.

10. How does Coleridge draw visual pictures through his poem, Kubla Khan?

Answer: Coleridge has presented the visual symbols of which the readers can visualize when they read the poem.

In this poem, the ideas of perfection and the different places drawn in in the poem have much importance. The imaginary portrayal brings out some of the opposite ideas in the poem like ‘fountain’,  ‘sunless seas’, ‘caverns’, ‘artificial caves’,  ‘sunny spots of greenery’, ‘savage place’ etc.

11. Are the ‘pleasure dome’ and the ‘vision of the damsel’ similar?

Answer: The ‘pleasure-dome’ of the poem is a kind of perfection of the both ‘holy’ and ‘enchanted’ which means ‘savage place’ and ‘the deep romantic chasm’ as it is the vision of ‘damsel with a dulcimer’. The poet too would become ‘holy and enchanted’ himself the ‘sympathy and song of the vision’.

12. Contrast the positive aspects of the vision with any negative aspects

Contrast the positive aspects of the vision with any negative aspects you have found in the poem, Kubla Khan. Is the poem a positive celebration of the vision or does it express more regrets at its transitory nature?

Answer: Directly there are not any negative words but there are limitations of the vision because it is a matter of self-contained area. The vision of the ‘damsel’ too is circumscribed by its transitoriness as the ‘pleasure-dome’ was by its topography. Both are an idealized portrayal as Brooke's ‘fishy heaven’.

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