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Question
Pick out
the words used to describe the movement of water.
Solution
Coleridge defines the natural flow and movement of water through various evocative words. The poet attempts to visualize the river rushing down the hillside “momently” like a “fountain”: “A mighty fountain momently was forced.” He wants the readers to imagine the river as something that is recreated at every moment.
The speaker also wants us to focus on the wild, ecstatic, vigorous excitement of the river. For the poet, the earth turns into a “seething”, “breathing” animal with the rushing water becoming the sound of its “fast thick pants” to evoke the sensation of fatigued earth. In the lines, “And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever/ It flung up momently the sacred river”- the poet tries to make the readers visualize the river bouncing off the rocks.
The meandering motion of the river is described in the words- “meander with a mazy motion”. Through the words- “Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,/ then reached the caverns measureless to man,/ And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean”, the poet visualizes the river as it rushes down a deep canyon and cuts into a wooded hillside. The river then flows gently through Xanadu and flattens out and turns into a proper, running river.
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| But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail: And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean; And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war! |
- How is the chasm described in these lines?
- What did Kubla Khan hear from afar?
- Which sacred river is being referred to in the lines above?
- What are bursts of water compared to?
- What does the phrase By woman wailing for demon-lover mean?
- An apt antonym for the word ‘savage’ is ______.
- civilized
- vagabond
- severe
- ferocious
Answer the following question in 120-150 words.
Comment on the significance of the river Alph in "Kubla Khan"?
