Kubla Khan

At first I did not really get why Kubla Khan was written (other than Coleridge had a vivid dream). However, after further analysis of the poem, I realized that it was much more that just an interesting story about one man's dream. It is true that Coleridge describes, in beautiful detail and imagery, his life-like dream of Kubla Khan's magnificent walls and gardens. However, I believe that instead of describing Kubla Khan in this poem, Coleridge was really describing his own experience through Kubla Khan.

It says that Coleridge had a dream in which he composed poetry, and then, upon trying to write it down, he was interupted. Once he came back to try and finish his poetry, the images were blurred and he was not able to complete it due to lack of memory. This is a perfect example of what Kubla Khan is about. It starts out exactly like Coleridge's experience does. Everything is happy and magical. "And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills/Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree" However, there is soon an unforeseen conflict that arises and disrupts the beauty of the garden. "Amid this tumult Kubla heard from far/ Ancestral voices prophesying war!" Then, after the conflict is overcome the beauty of the garden still remains, but it is not the same splendor as it was before. Finally, in the last stanza, Coleridge describes a damsel with a dulcimer playing a beautiful melody that he is trying to take in and harness it's power. "To such a deep delight t'would win me,/ That with music loud and long,/ I would build that dome in air,/ That sunny dome! those caves of ice!" He is saying that if he could only harness in himself her "word and song" that he could recreate the beauty of the "pleasure-dome" that Kubla Khan created.

This is a mirror image of how Coleridge's experience with writing the poem was. Coleridge had a beautiful dream where he created a magnificent poem. Then upon trying to write it down and keep up it's splendor, there was an unforeseen obstacle that came into play in the form of a man from Porlock. Then when the obstacle was overcome, the beauty of the poem was still in his head; however, it was not the same due to he could not remember it. Then he remembered how miraculous his dream was and wished that he could just remember it all once more so that he may final create his masterpiece (the damsel singing was a metaphor to this).

So in essence, Kubla Khan was just as much a recolection of a vivid dream, as well as, a tale of personal struggle to reconnect with the beauty that he had lost.