The poem “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The poem “Kubla Khan”, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is full of different auditory devices such as assonance and alliteration. Also, it defines the intimate emotionalism of romanticism and is regarded a musical poem, as can be observed in the opening 5 lines:“ In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.” The truth that in some parts, the poem sounded sorrowful and also lively at times, that was intended to encourage its listeners to be amazed of Coleridge simply because of the repetition of a, e, and u sounds continues all through the poem with the a sounds dominating. Afterwards, the assonance in the line “As if this earth in quickly thick pants have been breathing” tends to make the impact of breathing. In the poem, as every single line closes with it: “Kubla Khan,” “pleasure-dome decree,” “river, ran,” “measureless to man,” and “sunless sea.” the alliteration is exceptionally prevalent in the opening lines. In specific, the effect is practically to hypnotize the reader or listener into becoming open to new concepts to the marvelous visions about to seem. Notably, the other techniques of employing alliteration contains juxtaposition of “waning” and “woman wailing” to generate a sound of sadness. Incidentally, “Five miles meandering with a mazy motion” actually sounded like the movement it described. The repetition of the initial h and d sounds in the closing lines creates an image of the narrator as haunted and doomed:“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.”Ergo, with the assonance and alliteration, the impact of the final rhyme of the poem and from the established a sensation of movement to reinforce the image of the flowing river with the shadow of the pleasure dome floating upon it.

Additionally, such pictures stimulate a vision of Xanadu bound only by the reader’s imagination. Especially, with no being so particular, the imagery of “Kubla Khan” tends to evoke that it contradicts the magical, dreamlike effect for which Coleridge is striving. The “gardens vibrant with sinuous rills,” “incense-bearing tree,” “forests ancient as the hills,” and “sunny spots of greenery” are intentionally vague, as if remembered from a dream. As to mention that Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote this function of literature since he was deprived of opium. He took opium for medicinal purposes.