Question

What is the discordant note heard at the end of the third stanza? Can we relate this to the grandeur and turmoil that are a part of an emperor’s life?

Answer 1

In the third stanza, the speaker calls up Xanadu with a strange voice. The speaker is surprised by the images, imagines the image to be real, and cries out, "beware, beware"! describing the creature possessing "flashing eyes" and "floating hair". The description of the animal indicates that something bad is going to happen soon. Many critics argue that the vision was the effect of opium intake, while others have denied this and tried to explain it as a final vision of Kubla Khan, which turned into a mysterious and strange ghost. Thus, the third stanza creates an ambiguous and peculiar kind of atmosphere.