NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English (Kaleidoscope Poetry) Chapter 4 Kubla Khan

Ans : The river Alph, located in an ice-free region at the west of the Koettliz Glacier, initiates from Trough Lake and flows through Walcott Lake, Howchin Lake, and the Alph Lake. 

Ans : Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, is about the grandson of Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan.  Genghis Khan took initiative to build a summer palace located in Xandu, which is in Mongolia. In Kubla Khan, Coleridge talks about how Kubla wanted to build a dome that would be unaffected by the natural forces. He opposed to the natural forces of decay and degeneration and wanted to create a private world bereft of metamorphosis. Whereas, the poet wants to build a dome in the air out of the natural forces- the imaginative cocoon that would shell the poetic and the natural truth. The poet doesn’t want to go against the organic world. He wants to build something out of the natural forces that would blend with the natural motions of the world. 

Ans : The poem is filled with contradictory images. Noisy and active river Alph is contrasted with calm and peaceful garden. The gloomy and sad ocean is in contrast to the warm bright forest. The caves are freezing cold while domes are warm. The image of the wailing woman is contrasted with her lover whom Coleridge considers him as a demon. 

Ans : In Kubla Khan, we have images that strike the eyes. They are-
Firstly the name “Kubla Khan” imposes the trance-like effect on the reader that he has been looking for. The juxtaposition of waning and wailing woman imparts the effect of wailing sound. The line “Five miles meandering with a mazy motion”, there is alliteration in “m” sound and creates motion. “As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing”, in this use of assonance provides a sense of breathing. 

Ans : Coleridge uses various words to show various emotions and sounds. The poet attempts to visualize the river rushing down the hillside “momently” like a “fountain”: “A mighty fountain momently was forced.” The poet wants the reader to visualize to things as they are written.