Considered one of the main expressions of romanticism, the poem is different in style and form to other poems composed by Coleridge. Although Kubla Khan is subtitled a "fragment", it lacks the fragmentary aspects of other Coleridge poems. Instead, its incomplete character represents the aspects of the creative process through its form and its message.
The first verse of the poem describes the dome of pleasure built by Khan in his capital Xanadu next to a sacred river, the Alfeo, which fed a magnificent fountain and runs "through immeasurable caverns for man, downwards, towards a sea without Sun". The second verse of the poem is the narrator's response to the intoxicating song of a maiden from Abyssinia, which leaves him unable to follow his inspiration unless he could hear it once more.
The palace "a miracle of rare design, a sunny mansion of pleasure with ice caves" is enclosed by circular walls: the image of a circle -which denotes perfection- is repeated throughout the poem, which is basically a glorification of natural creation in contrast to human creation
Answer:Students should describe the elements of fantasy that Coleridge ascribes to Xanadu, pointing to such details as the spirit of the "woman wailing for her demon lover" and the vision of the Abyssinian maid "singing of Mount Abora." Students may also point out that a love of the exotic is naturally suited to the Romantic temperament, which revels in the mystery of the unknown and all that lies outside the realm of everyday experience.
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