“I know. Swinburne calls it, ‘for absolute melody and splendor the first poem in the language.’ It happens that the first five lines sum up the whole; so it will pay us to stop and analyze them, take them apart, syllable by syllable, and see how the trick is done. I quote the lines; and in order to play fair with the poet, shut your eyes and give yourself up to his spell. If you have any feeling for beauty of words, you will feel a chill running up and down your spine.” In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. First of all, note the meter; every long syllable is naturally long, and every short syllable is naturally short; so the lines flow softly, like running waves. Not merely are the rhymes perfect, there are hidden rhymes scattered through the lines; the Xanadu and Khan, also the two u’s in the first line, and the two a’s in the fourth line. Note the repetition of the consonant sounds. The X in the first line is pronounced as K; and we have seen shrewd business men in the United States collect many millions of dollars from the American people by the magic of the letter K three times repeated. There are two d’s in the second line, four r’s in the third, two m’s in the fourth, two s’s in the fifth. There is not a single harsh sound in the entire five lines; they have every musical charm that is possible to words. So much for the sounds; and now for the sense. Let us take it word by word, and see what it tells us. Xanadu: a place you never heard of, therefore mysterious, stimulating to the imagination; taken in connection with Kubla Khan, it suggests Tartar despotism, cruelty, terror. “A stately pleasure-dome”: magnificence in the fashion of the Arabian Nights, extravagance, a free rein to desire. The word “decree” reinforces this; suggesting an Oriental despot, who follows his whims without restraint. “Alph”: an unknown stream, therefore mysterious. “The sacred river”: this reinforces the idea of despotism, adding to our fear of earthly kings that of an all-powerful one in heaven. “Caverns measureless to man”: again mystery, and the fear which the unknown inspires. “Sunless sea”: this clenches the impression; for without the sun there can be no life, and the picture is the last word in desolation. The rest of the poem is in the same key. We hear about “ancestral voices prophesying war,” and a stream haunted “by woman wailing for her demon lover.” We are told about “an Abyssinian maid,” “a damsel with a dulcimer,” etc.