| Kubla Khan | |
|---|---|
| or A Vision in a Dream | |
| by Samuel Taylor Coleridge | |
 Title page of Kubla Khan (1816) | |
| Written | October 1797 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Form | Fragment |
| Meter | Iambic tetrameter, iambic pentameter |
| Rhyme scheme | abbaacc in some parts, couplets in others |
| Publisher | John Murray |
| Publication date | 1816 |
| Lines | 54 |
| Full text | |
 Kubla Khan at Wikisource | |
Kubla Khan: or A Vision in a Dream (/ˌkʊblə ˈkɑːn/) is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. It is sometimes given the subtitles "A Vision in a Dream" and "A Fragment." According to Coleridge's preface to Kubla Khan, the poem was composed one night after he experienced an opium-influenced dream after reading a work describing Shangdu, the summer capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China founded by Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu of Yuan). Upon waking, he set about writing lines of poetry that came to him from the dream until he was interrupted by "a person on business from Porlock". The poem could not be completed according to its original 200–300 line plan as the interruption caused him to forget the lines. He left it unpublished and kept it for private readings for his friends until 1816 when, at the prompting of Lord Byron, it was published.
The poem is vastly different in style from other poems written by Coleridge. The first stanza of the poem describes Kublai Khan's pleasure dome built alongside a sacred river fed by a powerful fountain. The second stanza depicts the sacred river as a darker, supernatural and more violent force of nature. Ultimately the clamor and energy of the physical world breaks through into Kublai's inner turmoil and restlessness. The third and final stanza of the poem is the narrator's response to the power and effects of an Abyssinian maid's song, which enraptures him but leaves him unable to act on her inspiration unless he could hear her once again. Together, the stanzas form a comparison of creative power that does not work with nature and creative power that is harmonious with nature. Coleridge concludes by describing a hypothetical audience's reaction to the song in the language of religious ecstasy.
Some of Coleridge's contemporaries denounced the poem and questioned his story of its origin. It was not until years later that critics began to openly admire the poem. Most modern critics now view Kubla Khan as one of Coleridge's three great poems, along with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel. The poem is considered one of the most famous examples of Romanticism in English poetry, and is one of the most frequently anthologized poems in the English language.[1] The manuscript is a permanent exhibit at the British Library in London.[2]
- ^ "Hit Singles by Joshua Weiner". Poetry Foundation. 13 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
- ^ "Manuscript of S T Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan'". The British Library. Retrieved 13 September 2017.