Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan"

The pleasure-dome is a metaphor for man's desire to control the world and especially to control nature. It can also be a metaphor for man's ego and his belief that he is the most powerful and wonderful force in the world. However, nature is too powerful to be controlled, just like the human imagination. There is a dark side of nature which the poet sees as far more wonderful powerful than man's desire to take over the world and run things the way he wants.

Therefore, the poem has at least one extended metaphor and perhaps two. One is the pleasure-dome which stands for man's ego and his everyday mind, and his belief that he can control the world and make it in his own image.

Nature is the other major image in the poem. It can either stand for itself, or it can be seen as an extended metaphor for the darker and deeper part of the human mind or human imagination.

Coleridge makes clear that he is not as inspired by the man-made pleasure-dome as much as he is by nature,

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 849
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page)

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