Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous poem ‘Kubla Khan’ has been surrounded by mystery ever since it was published in 1816, 20 years after it was written and when he needed money.

Coleridge explained that the 54 lines were a mere fragment of a glorious vision inspired by an opium dream. The dream had been shattered by an interruption and the rest of the poem had been lost forever.

It came to him while he was staying at a lonely Exmoor farmhouse, recuperating from an illness. He had taken two grains of opium for medicinal purposes. On awaking he began to put down the poem in an ecstasy of inspiration.

When he got to:
For he on honey dew has fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise….

He was suddenly interrupted by an insurance salesman from the nearby town of Porlock. Desperately he tried to get of the man, but somehow he was detained for an hour, talking mundane finance.

Try as he might, Coleridge could never recapture his vision of the legendary world of Xanadu. All that was left was the first fragment of ‘Kubla Khan’, which for 20 years he did not consider worth publishing

The Poem: KUBLA KHAN

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

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