The the vowels a, e, and u

The poem “ Kubla Khan”, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is full of various auditory devices like assonance and alliteration, as can be seen in the beginning five lines:” In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to man      Down to a sunless sea.” The fact that in some parts, the poem sounded sorrowful and also lively at times. Intentionally, the woeful and vivacious parts were to encourage listeners of the poem “ Kubla Khan” to be astounded of Coleridge because of repeating the vowels a, e, and u sounds is constant during the whole poem with the a sounds becoming more dominant. Afterwards, the assonance in the line “ As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing” makes the reader inevitably breath.

In the poem, the alliteration is exceptionally prevalent in the opening lines: “ Kubla Khan,” “ pleasure-dome decree,” “ river, ran,” “ measureless to man,” and “ sunless sea.” Notably, the juxtaposition of  “ waning” and “ woman wailing” are other ways of using alliteration to create an image of gloominess and sound of sadness. Incidentally, “ Five miles meandering with a mazy motion” literally sounded like the movement it described. The repetition of the initial h and d sounds in the closing lines creates an image of the narrator as haunted and doomed:” His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.

“ Ergo, to restore the impression of the flowing river with assonance and alliteration, the impact of the last rhythm of “ Kubla Khan” and from the organized sensation of movement, with the shadow of the pleasure dome floating upon it. Moreover, such impressions incite a vivacious mental impression of Xanadu resolved only through the reader’s imagination. Particularly, without being so specific, the envisioning of “ Kubla Khan” tends to evoke that it contradicts the magical, dreamlike effect for which Coleridge is endeavouring. The “ gardens bright with sinuous rills,” “ incense-bearing tree,” “ forests ancient as the hills,” and “ sunny spots of greenery” are intentionally vague, as if remembered from a dream. As to mention that Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote this work of literature because he was deprived of opium. He took opium for medicinal purposes.