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HomePoems > Kubla Khan > Words                           

 

Words

Here are the words for which Lowes believed he had found sources.

Each word appears with the relevant line from the poem. 

On the right, you see a list of the source passages that may possibly have inspired Coleridge to use this particular word in Kubla Khan. 

Note: One author may have penned several passages that Lowes sees as contributing imagery or language to the poem. In those situations, I have numbered each passage, Bruce 1, Bruce 2, and so on.

Don't get the impression that for every word in the poem there is some source, according to Lowes. 

Some words that he did not argue had a definite source: demon, device, forest, heard, loud, lover, shadow, symphony, vision, weave, woman. So you can see that a lot of the tissue of the poem goes without any particular source, even for Lowes.

And he stresses the similarity of imagery more than verbal echoes.  So in his view, what Coleridge absorbed and recalled was the vision, and occasionally the words came along with that.  The key, though, are the visual associations between images he had soaked up--graphic links, we might call them. 

Here we only look at words that Lowes believes came from one or more sources. 

Other Perspectives

Kubla Khan--The Poem

Sources

Images

 

Word

Line

Text

Possible sources

Abora

41

Singing of Mount Abora

 Bruce 6
 Bruce 7
 Kircher 4
 Milton 6

 Purchas 5

Abyssinian

39

It was an Abyssinian maid,

 Bruce 5
 Bruce 8
 Bruce 9
 Milton 6

Air 46 I would build that dome in air  Bernier 4
 Milton 2

Alph

3

Where Alpha, the sacred river, ran

 Pausanias
 Seneca 1
 Strabo 1
 Strabo 2
 Virgil

Amid 20 Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst  Bernier 1
 Bernier 3
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Herodotus
 Milton 4
 Purchas 1
 Purchas 2
 Wollstonecraft

Ancestral

30

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

 Purchas 2

Ancient 10 And here were forests ancient as the hills  Bernier 2
 Bruce 2
 Burnet 1
 Pausanias

Blossomed

9

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree

 Bartram 2
 Bartram 3
 Milton 2

Breathing

18

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing

 Milton 4

Caverns

4

Through caverns measureless to man

 Bartram 5
 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Rennell
 Strabo 2
 Wollstonecraft

Caverns

27

Then reached the caverns measureless to man

 Bartram 5
 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Rennell
 Strabo 2
 Wollstonecraft

Caves

34

From the fountain and the caves

 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4

 Rennell

Caves

36

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4

 Rennell

Caves

47

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4
 Rennell

Ceaseless

17

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething

 Bartram 5
 Bartram 7

 Bernier 4

Cedarn

13

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover

 Beckford
 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Milton 1

Chasm

12

But oh! That deep romantic chasm which slanted

 Beckford
 Kircher 1
 Kircher 3
 Strabo 2

Chasm

17

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething

 Beckford
 Kircher 1
 Kircher 3
 Strabo 2

Circle

51

Weave a circle round him thrice,

 Bartram 2
 Maurice 3
 Milton 2
 Rennell

Cover

13

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover

 Bruce 1
 Bruce 8

Dale

26

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran

 Milton 4

Damsel

37

A damsel with a dulcimer

 Purchas 4

Dancing

23

And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

 Milton 4
 Purchas 4
Deep 12 But Oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted  Bruce 8
 Kircher 3
  44 To such a deep delight 'twould win me  Bruce 8
 Kircher 3
Delight 44 To such deep delight 'twould win me  Bartram 2
 Milton 2

 Milton 6
 Purchas 1
 Purchas 4

Dome

2

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

 Bernier 1
 Bernier 2
 Maurice 3
 Purchas 1
 Strabo 2

Dome

31

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

 Bernier 1
 Bernier 2
 Maurice 3
 Purchas 1
 Strabo 2

Dome

36

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

 Bernier 1
 Bernier 2
 Maurice 3
 Purchas 1
 Strabo 2

Dome

46

I would build that dome in air,

 Bernier 1
 Bernier 2
 Maurice 3
 Purchas 1
 Strabo 2

Dome

47

That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!

 Bernier 1
 Bernier 2
 Maurice 3
 Purchas 1
 Strabo 2

 

Drunk

54

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

 Purchas 4

Earth

18

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing

 Bartram 2
 Bartram 6
 Bartram 8
 Bernier 2
 Bernier 5
 Bruce 1
 Burnet 2
 Kircher 1
 Kircher 3
 Maurice 1
 Milton 2
 Milton 4
 Pausanias
 Seneca 1
 Seneca 2
 Wollstonecraft

Enchanted

14

A savage place! As holy and enchanted

 Bartram 2
 Bartram 4
 Bartram 5
 Bruce 1
 Collins

Eyes 50 His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Bruce 8
Seneca 2
52 And close your eyes with holy dread Bruce 8
Seneca 2
Far 29 And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far  Bartram 8
 Bernier 3

Fertile

6

So twice five miles of fertile ground

 Milton 4
 Purchas 1
 Rennell

Five 6 So twice five miles of fertile ground Bartram 5
Bruce 4

Five

25

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

 Bartram 5
 Bruce 4
 Purchas 4

Floated

32

Floated midway on the waves;

 Bernier 3
 Bruce 8

Floating

50

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

 Bernier 3
 Bruce 3
 Bruce 8

Flung up

24

It flung up momently the sacred river

 Bartram 5
 Bartram 8

Strabo 2

Forced

19

A mighty fountain momently was forced

 Bartram 7
 Bernier 2
 Bruce 3
 Bruce 7
 Kircher 1
 Strabo 2

Fountain

19

A mighty fountain momently was forced

 Bartram 4
 Bartram 5
 Bartram 6
 Bartram 7
 Bartram 8
 Beckford
 Bernier 2
 Bernier 4
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Bruce 3
 Burnet 1
 Herodotus
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4
 Pausanias
 Rennell
 Seneca 1
 Virgil
 Wollstonecraft

Fountain

34

From the fountain and the caves

 Bartram 4
 Bartram 5
 Bartram 6
 Bartram 7
 Bartram 8
 Beckford
 Bernier 2
 Bernier 4
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Bruce 3
 Burnet 1
 Herodotus
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4
 Pausanias
 Rennell
 Seneca 1
 Virgil
 Wollstonecraft

Fragments

21

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail

 Bartram 5
 Bartram 8
 Bruce 7

Gardens

8

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills

 Bartram 2
 Bernier 1
 Bernier 2
 Bernier 3
 Milton 4
 Milton 6
 Purchas 3
 Purchas 4
 Rennell

Girdled 7 With walls and towers were girdled round  Bruce 8

Green

13

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover

 Bartram 1
 Bartram 3
 Bartram 4
 Bernier 1
 Bruce 2
 Milton 1

Greenery

11

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery

 Bartram 1
 Bartram 3
 Bartram 4
 Bernier 1
 Bruce 2
 Milton 1

Ground

6

So twice five miles of fertile ground

 Bartram 3
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Burnet 1
 Milton 4
 Purchas 1

Hair

50

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

 Bruce 8

Half-intermitted

20

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

 Bartram 5
 Bartram 7
 Bernier 4

 

Haunted

15

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

 Collins

Hill

13

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover

 Beckford
 Bernier 1
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Bruce 7
 Bruce 9
 Milton 3
 Milton 4

 Purchas 5

Hills

10

And here were forests ancient as the hills

 Bernier 1
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Bruce 7
 Bruce 9
 Milton 3
 Milton 4

 Purchas 5

Holy

14

A savage place! As holy and enchanted

 Bartram 2
 Bruce 2
 Bruce 9
 Collins
 Purchas 2
 Rennell

Holy

52

And close your eyes with holy dread,

 Bartram 2
 Bruce 2
 Bruce 9
 Collins
 Purchas 2
 
Rennell

Honey-dew

53

For he on honey-dew hath fed

 Purchas 4