Theme of Kubla Khan :
“Kubla Khan” is one of the most celebrated poems by the poster boy of Romantic supernaturalism, S. T. Coleridge, who sought in this poem to showcase the natural exuberance and the imperial glory on one hand, and the all-pervasive power of Romantic imagination and Romantic poetry on the other hand. Bordering on the arena of natural beauty and mystery, Coleridge unfolds the theme of imperialistic clash of civilization, power of creativity and an extended metaphor for life and life’s glory itself. A multidimensional poem, “Kubla Khan” never fails to amaze the readers and critics generation after generation.
The poem begins with the imperial monarch Kubla Khan ordering the construction of a “stately pleasure-dome” in such a place where the sacred river Alph ran “Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea”. The dome is to be constructed in such an exotic location upon “twice five miles of fertile ground ” where bright gardens with sinuous rills and incense-bearing trees please human eyes. The accumulation of all kinds of varieties within a singular plot of ten miles – including river, cavern, garden, streams, forest and hills – is what gives the reader a natural extravaganza typical of Romanticism.
While the first stanza deals with the natural beauty and richness of Khan’s pleasure dome, the second stanza focuses centrally around the “deep romantic chasm”. This dark and mysterious colouring of the whole environment mystifies the chasm to a supernatural extent. From this chasm, a ” mighty fountain” burst out from which originated the sacred river. There lies an intensely organic and sexual imagery of a woman bearing a child. The “Ancestral voices prophesying war” signifies two-fold war : firstly, the clash between Eurocentric Enlightenment and Oriental Imperialism and secondly, the eternal feud between time and beauty. The utmost binary of illumination and concealment is manifest in the natural “miracle of rare device” – ” A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice”.
Another layer of the poem serves as an extended metaphor of creation. The river Alph reminds us of the first Greek letter, symbolically the origin of civilization and world. The deep chasm and the dark cavern symbolise birth from the dark womb and assimilation in the dark immaterial world of death. The passage of Alph represents human life and the fierce origin signifies that without violence, no thing of beauty and pleasure can be created.
The strongest sensation is unboxed in the third stanza of the poem where the poet claims to possess an equal state like the imperial monarch Kubla Khan in that he can construct the dome itself in the air by force of mere poetic lines. In fact, Kubla’s power falls short to the poet’s power since he needs no concreteness but only poetic inspiration to do the same glorious deed. He can accumulate the binaries of pleasure and violence, shaped beauty and aesthetic exuberance, natural and supernatural in an instant and thereby he parallels the Divine Patriarch, for like God, he also can create “a miracle of rare device” ex nihilo ( out of nothing). The inspired poet with “His flashing eyes, his floating hair” creates the paragon of excellence out of nothingness :
“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 built that dome in air”.
Therefore, “Kubla Khan” is too simple to be understood and too powerful to be felt. Like Romantic imagination, this poem also leaves the readers “with holy dread” on the border of reason and sensation, wherefrom they behold the verbal Paradise of the poet who “on honey-dew hath fed/ And drunk the milk of Paradise”.
