"Kubla Khan": A Poem of Sexual Ambiguity
Abstract
The poem 'Kubla Khan' is quite inexplicable. It a fun of ambiguity and seemingly bizarre Implications. Many critics have seen it as a poem full of ethereal music, but I find it a mysterious reflection on human sexuality. In it Coleridge makes reference to what Freud would have called "dream work? basically thoughts surfacing as thing and thinking being dramatized: the thoughts being pulled from the subconscious and made significant. Had It not been for the opium. Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan" would have remained a fantasy. dreamt arid last. Certainty. the poem is a mad intricate work, full of the poet's desire to portray grandeur synaestheticaily. 'Kubla Khan' is also, among other things. a poem full of ironic reflections on the legendary architectural feat of the Mughals.