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Kubla

Historical Figure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of China and founder of the Yuan dynasty.

Detailed Definition
Kubla is Coleridge’s spelling of Kublai Khan, the historical Mongol emperor who ruled China in the 13th century. The poem uses him as a figure of imperial power and exotic magnificence.
Example
Example in poetry:
Coleridge opens “Kubla Khan” with “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree,” making the ruler a figure of imperial command and dreamlike excess; The historical Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, becomes the imaginative “Kubla” of Romantic vision rather than a documentary portrait; “Kubla’s decree raises a dome where sacred river and caverns meet” shows how a historical name can lend authority to fantasy; Contemporary historical poems may invoke Kubla to question empire, mapping, or the power of rulers to reshape landscapes
Additional Notes
The name appears in the opening line and refers to a specific historical ruler many readers may need to identify.; Found in the poem, Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Also Known As
Kublai Khan of the East Mongol Emperor
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