Kubla Khan

The three primary characters in “Kubla Khan” are the Khan himself, the “damsel with a dulcimer” (Line 37), and the poetic speaker. All three are artistic types creating worlds through their particular artistic expressions. Although all create with varying degrees of success, their creations are temporal things, bound to disappear. 

Kubla Khan creates his opulent “pleasure-dome” (Line 2) in the holy, haunted world of Xanadu. He builds his palace and its walls, along with the lush gardens within. The first stanza demonstrates the deliberate intent behind this kingdom--from its measurements to the “incense-bearing tree[s]” (Line 9) in the gardens.

The second creator in the poem is the spectral musician in the third stanza. The musical damsel is the speaker’s artistic ideal since her song inspires “deep delight” (Line 44) and heavenly visions in her hearers. The speaker claims if he possessed the damsel’s creative power, he could not only impress listeners with his poetic vision of Xanadu, but he would also convince them he is a supernatural being with “flashing eyes” and “floating hair” (Line 50). He uses conditional verbs like “would build” (Line 46) and “should cry” (Line 49), indicating he hasn’t yet captured the imaginations of his readers as Xanadu and the damsel have captured him.