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Coleridge uses rhyme throughout “Kubla Khan,” but not according to any conventional pattern. For example, the poem’s opening stanza has the following rhyme scheme: ABAABCCDEDE. This scheme here doesn’t exhibit any obvious patterns. Perhaps the most we could say about it is that the rhymes here consist generally of couplets (e.g., AA, CC), alternating rhymes (e.g., DEDE), and a mix of the two (e.g., ABAAB). A similar mixing of rhyme patterns continues throughout the rest of the poem. Many of these rhymes are exact, meaning they form precise matches. For example, “rills” and “hills” (lines 8 and 10) make an exact rhyme. However, the poem also features many inexact—or slant—rhymes. For example, “ever” and “river” (lines 23 and 24) form an obvious slant rhyme. A less obvious slant rhyme appears between the words “tree” and “greenery” (lines 9 and 11). Although “tree” does technically rhyme with the -ree sound at the end of “greenery,” these syllables don’t carry the same amount of stress. Whereas “tree” carries a full stress, the stress on the final syllable of “greenery” is secondary to that of the first syllable: “green-er-y.” The use of slant rhyme brings an additional degree of variation that keeps the poem’s form lively and unpredictable.

Aside from the unconventional rhyming pattern and the use of slant rhyme, it’s also worth noting Coleridge’s frequent use of so-called feminine rhyme. In poetry analysis, there are two basic types of end rhyme: “masculine” and “feminine.” Masculine rhyme occurs when the rhyme falls solely on the final stressed syllable of a line. For example, the words “ground” and “round” (lines 6 and 7) form a masculine rhyme. By contrast, feminine rhyme occurs when the rhyme is distributed across more than one syllable, as is the case in the rhyme formed between “slanted” and “enchanted” (lines 12 and 14). Although there is more masculine than feminine rhyme in the poem, “Kubla Khan” nonetheless features an unusual number of feminine rhymes. Other examples include “seething” and “breathing” (lines 17 and 18) as well as “pleasure” and “measure” (lines 31 and 33). As already shown in the rhyme between “tree” and “greenery” mentioned above, Coleridge also sometimes forms rhymes between words of different lengths. Another example of this phenomenon comes early in the poem, between “decree” and “sea” (lines 2 and 5). The prevalence of feminine rhyme brings yet more variation to the poem’s rhyme curious scheme.

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