Coleridge took laudanum and fell asleep, dreaming of writing a poem about Kubla Khan building a palace. When he awoke, he wrote down 54 lines but was interrupted by a visitor before finishing. The poem uses imagery and supernatural elements to depict Kubla Khan's pleasure dome and the sacred river Alph, representing creativity and nature. It has an AABB rhyme scheme and explores themes of imagination, man's relationship with nature, and the interaction of creation and destruction.

1. Analysis of Kubla Khan

5. Analysis:
 One night in 1797, Coleridge was not feeling all that great. To
dull the pain, he took a dose of laudanum. Soon he fell asleep
and had a strange dream about Kubla Khan, because before
falling asleep, he had been reading a story from "Purchas'
Pilgrims" in which Kubla Khan commanded the building of a
new palace. Coleridge dreamt that he was writing a poem in
his sleep, and when he woke up after two hours, he sat down
to record the poem. He meant to write two to three hundred
lines, but he was interrupted by a tailor from Porlock, who had
come to see him on business. When he came back to the
poem, he had forgotten the rest

6. • Themes of the poem
 Creative power of imagination
 Man and natural world
 Interaction between man and nature

7. • Poetic structure of the poem:
 "Kubla Khan" is a fifty-four line lyric. It has
two parts and four stanzas. It is written in
iambic tetrameter and pentameter.

8. Symbolism:
 The pleasure-dome.
The pleasure-dome symbolizes immortality and
majesty.
 The river Alph.
The river Alph is a symbol of life and force. The
ceaseless turmoil of the river.

9.  Mazy motion:
The mazy motion suggests uncertain and blind progress of the human
soul and the complexities of human life.
 Tumult:
The tumult is associated with war.
 Ancestral voices and mingled measure:
The ancestral voices stand for that dark compulsion that binds the race
its habitual conflicts. The mingled measure suggests the blend of
fundamental opposites, creation and destruction.

10. • The Supernatural in the Poem:
 Supernatural elements are peppered
throughout the poem. The sacred river, the
caverns measureless to man, the sunless sea,
the deep romantic chasm, the woman wailing
for her demon lover. they all create a world of
magic, wonder and enchantment.

11. • Imagery in the Poem:
The whole poem is a succession of visual, auditory and
gustatory images.
 Visual imagery .
Visual imagery include; the pleasure dome, the sacred
river, the measureless caverns, the deep romantic chasm, the
woman wailing for her demon lover, the Abyssinian maid,
and the poet himself.
 Auditory images.
The prophecies of war, the song of Abyssinian maid and the
warning of the people listening the story of the poet are
auditory images.

12.  Thermal images.
Sun and ice are thermal images.
 Gustatory images.
Feeding on honey-dew and drinking the milk of
paradise are examples of gustatory images.

13. The Romantic Elements in the Poem:
 Imagination, supernaturalism, sensuousness,
exploration of nature and magical spell are the major
romantic elements in "Kubla Khan". The entire poem is
based on a vision Coleridge had during an opium trance.
 The poet's eyes and his floating hair are connected with
magic.
 In short, like a true romantic poem, it is a product of pure
fancy, a work of sheer imagination and is, therefore, a
wholly romantic composition.