SOURCE: Burke, Kenneth. “‘Kubla Khan’: Proto-Surrealist Poem.” In Modern Critical Views: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, edited by Harold Bloom, pp. 33-52. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.

In the following essay, originally published in 1966, Burke analyzes “Kubla Khan” in the context of Coleridge's other “mystery poems”—including “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Christabel”—explaining its linguistic references, mythic patterns of death and rebirth, and underlying unity.

Let's begin at the heart of the matter, and take up the “problems” afterwards. Count me among those who would view this poem both as a marvel, and as “in principle” finished (and here is a “problem,” inasmuch as Coleridge himself refers to “Kubla Khan” as a “fragment”).

Conceivably, details could be added, to amplify one or another of the three movements. And some readers (I am not among them) might especially feel the need of transitional lines to bridge the ellipsis...