How Can a Poet Build Something?
The poem Kubla Khan is a complex and perplexing poem. It was written after an opium-induced dream and serves as an insight into the subconscious of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It talks of things, which the reader would literally find impossible to imagine, and so is hard to deconstruct, it seems that it was never intended to be understood and rather just read and enjoyed.
Without referring to the physical action of building with bricks and mortar, poets build through words, phrases, structure and grammatical devices. The most prominent grammatical devices used in this poem are hyperbole, metaphors and similes. All of these help emphasise what the poet is describing, they weave a lush visual tapestry in the reader’s head. Starting at the top, the poem’s title, Kubla Khan is the name of Genghis khan who lived lavishly. The poem describes a dome or temple he built in the mountains. The poem is structured with three stanzas, the rhyming structure seems random but it flows well and rhythmically. The hyperbole used, such as “caverns measureless to man”, deeply emphasise his feelings and thoughts. Metaphors are another device used to emphasise emotions and experiences, as do similes. Alliteration is also used, as is religious imagery. All of these provide a media with which he can express his dream.
