In “Secret(ing) Conversations: Coleridge and Wordsworth,” Bruce Lawder highlights the significance of Coleridge’s use of a feminine rhyme scheme in the above stanza, in which the last two syllables of the lines rhyme (such as “seething” and “breathing”). Lawder notes that “the male force of the ‘sacred river’ literally interrupts, and puts an end to, the seven successive feminine endings that begin the second verse paragraph” (80). This juxtaposition of female forces versus male forces parallels the juxtaposition of Coleridge’s typical pleasant descriptions of nature versus this poem’s unpleasant descriptions. In most of Coleridge’s works, nature represents a nurturing presence. However, in “Kubla Khan,” nature is characterized by a rough, dangerous terrain that can only be tamed by a male explorer such as Kubla Khan