Kubla Khan and Poem Research Proposal

They are of an indeterminate time and place -- like a dream.

Coleridge's evident admiration for this fantastic place makes the viewer admire it as well, although it could also be interpreted as the palace of an autocrat. At times, his declarative language makes the viewer almost believe that the poem is true, given the specificity of his images. But the poet also admits that the "damsel with a dulcimer" he saw was a vision, and the paradoxical pairing of the sunny dome and the frosty caves of ice makes the reader understand that this experience, however intense, is a dream or vision.In the final lines Coleridge asks the viewer not to wake, but to close his or her eyes, as only by shutting his or her eyes "with holy dread" can the viewer see: "he on honey-dew hath fed, / and drunk….....