1.Kubla Khan Is a Poem Written in 3 Parts. in the First Part

Kubla Khan

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
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;
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
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:
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.
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
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.
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,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
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!
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.

Questions

1.Kubla Khan is a poem written in 3 parts. In the first part

Coleridgeestablishes three symbols - the Pleasure Dome, the

riverAlph and thecaverns. What do they symbolize?

2.How does Coleridge describe the Pleasure Dome in the 1st

part?

3.In the 2nd part of Kubla Khan the Pleasure Dome is described

differentlythan inthe 1st part. How is it described in the 2nd

part and in what way is it different?

4.What point do you think Coleridge is making with his

contrasting descriptions ofthe Pleasure Dome in the 1st and

2nd parts of Kubla Khan?

5.In the 3rd part of Kubla Khan the speaker of the poem

emerges. What visiondid heonce have according to the 3rd

part? What would the speaker do if hecould revive his vision?

6.What do the last 7 lines of the poem suggest would occur to the

speaker if hecould build that dome in air"? How would listeners react if they heard thespeaker?

7.What do you think Kubla Khan is about? What is its theme?

8.What connection is there between the poem and its preface? Do

you think the poem is a fragment as Coleridge indicates in his preface, or complete. Explain.

9.Identify examples of at least 5 major ideas of Romanticism in

Kubla Khan.