Question

The question below refers to the selection “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Read the excerpt then answer the question that follows.

But O, that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted 15
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced;
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst 20
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion 25
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reach'd the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

But O, that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted 15By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced; Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst 20Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion 25Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reach'd the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!
In the stanza beginning on line 12, the speaker describes the chasm as —
a.
haunted and wild
c.
ruined over time
b.
cozy and safe
d.
impossible to imagine

Answer 1

A. haunted and wild

Step-by-step explanation:

In "Kubla Khan", Coleridge starts with the description of Khan's pleasure dome, Xanadu, laying on the sacred river Alph.

Although we might expect a more detailed depiction of this palace and its purpose, the author quickly shifts to the stream of river which quickly becomes wild downstream of the palace.

This is because of the chasm in which the river flows, that is described as:

"A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!"

Such description of the nature (savage, wild and haunted) is in contrast with the descriptions of the romantics, to which Coleridge belonged, which opens many ways to interpret this poem.