Kubla Khan

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan is the product of a an opium-fueled dream, in which Coleridge imagines what life would be like if nature were our only ruler. Coleridge uses "Kubla Khan" to refer to a "stately pleasure-dome" which exists in Xanadu, China. Kubla Khan is a play on "Kublai Khan," who was an emperor of the Mongolian Empire and founder of the Yuan Dynasty. By comparing this pleasure-dome to an almighty emperor of the past, Coleridge immediately establishes its legitimacy. Much like an emperor issuing edicts, the pleasure-dome "decree(ed)/ Where ALPH, the sacred river, ran." The sacred river which runs into the sea can be viewed as the blood from which the landscape derives its life source, allowing it to produce forests, hills, and miles of fertile ground. Coleridge does more than just view nature in a positive light though, and acknowledges that there is a dark side. This dark side can be found in the deep caverns and "caves of ice." The mention of caverns and icy caves brings to mind Dante's Inferno. As Dante and Virgil travel deeper and deeper into the rings of Hell, they eventually reach the center, where Satan resides frozen in ice. Satan has three faces, one of which is described as "like those who come from where the Nile, descending, flows." It seems as though Coleridge was interested in showing contrasts in nature - the beautiful, sublime side, in which a lovely river flows through, and the cold, morally corrupt side that the river of life can lead you to. In Kubla Khan, Coleridge demonstrates that even nature in all of its glory has a much darker side, and can be just as unforgiving as a vicious ruler.