The third stanza of the poem (lines 37-54) is slightly different from the first two stanzas.  This stanza is still a narrative, but instead of describing Kubla Khan's palace, it describes Coleridge's dream.  In his dream, Coleridge sees an "Abyssinian maid" (line 39) with a dulcimer.  The importance of the maid is that her music and song will compel Coleridge to build his own palace--"That sunny dome!  Those caves of ice!" (47).  One interesting thing about the Abyssinian maid that I noticed (as did Burke) is that the word "Abyss" is contained in "Abyssinian."  "Abyss" is a possible connection to the chasm mentioned in the second stanza of the poem.      Line 47 is also very important to the message the poem is trying to convey to the reader.  Both the "sunny dome" and the "caves of ice" are metaphors for the link between creation and destruction.  Unlike Kubla Khan, when Coleridge builds his palace, he also builds the caves of ice, which could cause the destruction of his palace.  Coleridge accepts the danger of the caves and realizes that he must accept destruction if he is going to pursue beautiful creations.  Kubla Khan failed to realize that creation and destruction goes hand-in-hand, and that is why his palace is ultimately destroyed.  A final way Coleridge illustrates the connection between creation and destruction is by rhyming "ice" in line 36 with "Paradise" in line 54.      A final interesting point to note is that near the end of the second stanza, Kubla Khan, while standing amid the ruins of his own palace, sees the same dome and caves of ice that Coleridge discusses in the third stanza.  It appears that at this moment Kubla Khan realizes it was foolish to surround his palace with a wall to prevent its destruction.  In his palace's moment of destruction, he finally realizes how he should have built it.      Coleridge presents the reader with a very good illustration of what could happen if a person attempts to create an object of beauty without accepting the fact that the object could ultimately be destroyed.  By accepting destruction as inevitable, one is better prepared when the end does arrive. Burke, Kenneth.  "'Kubla Khan': Proto-Surrealist Poem."  In Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Edited by Harold Bloom.  New York:      Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.  "Kubla Khan."  In The Longman Anthology of British Literature.  Edited by David Damrosch.  New      York: Addison Wesly Educational Publishers, Inc., 1999. Holmes, Richard.  Coleridge.  New York: Viking, 1989. Wheeler, Kathleen M.  The Creative Mind in Coleridge's Poetry. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.