How Does Coleridge Use Contradiction In The Caverns?

The first stanza starts off by describing elements that relate to nature such as a river and caverns. These elements are normal to a realistic dream. However, Coleridge is starting to contradict himself. “Through caverns measureless to man/ So twice five miles of fertile ground” (Coleridge Lines 4 and 6). These lines contradict each other because he is saying that the caverns are “measureless to man” but then says that it is five miles. He uses contradiction in these lines to show that the events in dreams are almost always contradicting. The first stanza also uses metonymy. An example of this is when he mentions a “dome” in line 2. That’s the only word he uses to refer to “Xanadu” as a whole.

In the second stanza, Coleridge starts bringing the poem to a weirder side. There are a few similes that are used in this stanza. An example would be him comparing rocks to a “rebounding hail”. After a few lines, he mentions the “sacred river” again. He wants the reader to focus on how the river is wild and violent as it is flowing. “It flung up the sacred river” (Coleridge Line 24). Another weird part about this stanza is how two different settings are set up. He

In the first two stanzas, third person point of view is used. However, that all changes in the third stanza. The poem shifts to first person point of view all of a sudden. An example of this is “I would build that dome in air” (Coleridge Line 46). This causes the poem to lose its plausibility and realism. Another reason this stanza shows how unrealistic dreams can be is by Coleridge taking a major turn in this stanza from the rest of the poem. He begins to describe a totally different vision he had in the dream. “In a vision I once saw; / It was an Abyssinian maid” (Coleridge Lines 38-39). The type of figurative language used in this stanza is rhyme. “And all who heard should see them there, / And all should cry, Beware! Beware!” (Coleridge Lines