Kubla Khan - Poems | Academy of American Poets Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization. browse poems & poets sign up to receive a new poem-a-day in your inbox sign up read this poet's poems Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a leader of the British Romantic movement, was born on October 21, 1772, in Devonshire, England. His father, a vicar of a parish and master of a grammar school, married twice and had fourteen children. The youngest child in the family, Coleridge was a student at his father's school and an avid reader. After his father died in 1781, Coleridge attended Christ's Hospital School in London, where he met lifelong friend Charles Lamb.

While in London, he also befriended a classmate named Tom Evans, who introduced Coleridge to his family. Coleridge fell in love with Tom's older sister, Mary. Coleridge's father had always wanted his son to be a clergyman, so when Coleridge entered Jesus College, University of Cambridge in 1791, he focused on a future in the Church of England. Coleridge's views, however, began to change over the course of his first year at Cambridge. He became a supporter of William Frend, a Fellow at the college whose Unitarian beliefs made him a controversial figure. While at Cambridge, Coleridge also accumulated a large debt, which his brothers eventually had to pay off. Financial problems continued to plague him throughout his life, and he constantly depended on the support of others. En route to Wales in June 1794, Coleridge met a student named Robert Southey. Striking an instant friendship, Coleridge postponed his trip for several weeks, and the men shared their philosophical ideas.

Influenced by Plato's Republic, they constructed a vision of pantisocracy (equal government by all), which involved emigrating to the New World with ten other families to set up a commune on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Coleridge and Southey envisioned the men sharing the workload, a great library, philosophical discussions, and freedom of religious and political beliefs. After finally visiting Wales, Coleridge returned to England to find that Southey had become engaged to a woman named Edith Fricker. As marriage was an integral part of the plan for communal living in the New World, Coleridge decided to marry another Fricker daughter, Sarah. Coleridge wed in 1795, in spite of the fact that he still loved Mary Evans, who was engaged to another man. Coleridge's marriage was unhappy and he spent much of it apart from his wife. During that period, Coleridge and Southey collaborated on a play titled The Fall of Robespierre (1795). While the pantisocracy was still in the planning stages, Southey abandoned the project to pursue his legacy in law.

Left without an alternative plan, Coleridge spent the next few years beginning his career as a writer. He never returned to Cambridge to finish his degree. In 1795 Coleridge befriended William Wordsworth , who greatly influenced Coleridge's verse. Coleridge, whose early work was celebratory and conventional, began writing in a more natural style. In his "conversation poems," such as "The Eolian Harp" and "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," Coleridge used his intimate friends and their experiences as subjects. The following year, Coleridge published his first volume of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, and began the first of ten issues of a liberal political publication entitled The Watchman. From 1797 to 1798 he lived near Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, in Somersetshire. In 1798 the two men collaborated on a joint volume of poetry entitled Lyrical Ballads. The collection is considered the first great work of the Romantic school of poetry and contains Coleridge's famous poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." That autumn the two poets traveled to the Continent together.

Coleridge spent most of the trip in Germany, studying the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Jakob Boehme, and G. E. Lessing. While there he mastered the German language and began translating. When he returned to England in 1800, he settled with family and friends at Keswick. Over the next two decades Coleridge lectured on literature and philosophy, wrote about religious and political theory, spent two years on the island of Malta as a secretary to the governor in an effort to overcome his poor health and his opium addiction, and lived off of financial donations and grants. Still addicted to opium, he moved in with the physician James Gillman in 1816. In 1817, he published Biographia Literaria, which contained his finest literary criticism. He continued to publish poetry and prose, notably Sibylline Leaves (1817), Aids to Reflection (1825), and Church and State (1830). He died in London on July 25, 1834.

Selected Bibliography Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision; The Pains of Sleep (1816) Fears in Solitude (1798) Lyrical Ballads, with a few Other Poems (1798) Poems (1803) Poems on Various Subjects (1796) Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Oxford Authors (1985) Selections from the Sybilline Leaves of S. T. Coleridge (1827) Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems (1817) Sonnets from various authors (1796) The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1969) The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1912) The Devil's Walk: A Poem (1830) The Literary Remains in Prose and Verse of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1839) The Poetical Works of S. T.

Coleridge (1828) Prose A Moral and Political Lecture (1795) Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character (1825) Biographia Literaria, or Biographical Sketches of my Literary Life and Opinions (1817) Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1973) Conciones ad Populum, or Addresses to the People (1795) Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit (1841) Essays on His Own Times; forming a second series of "The Friend," (1850) Hints towards the Formation of a more Comprehensive Theory of Life (1848) On the Constitution of Church and State (1830) Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Letters (1987) Seven Lectures upon Shakespeare and Milton (1856) Specimens of the Table Talk of the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1835) The Friend: A Literary, Moral, and Political Weekly Paper (1810) The Friend; A Series of Essays (1812) The Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1895) The Notebooks

 of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1957) The Philosophical Lectures of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1949) The Plot Discovered, or an Address to the People Against Ministerial Treason (1795) The Statesman's Manual, or The Bible the Best Guide to Political Skill and Foresight: A Lay Sermon (1816) Unpublished Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1932) Zapolya: A Christmas Tale (1817) Drama Remorse, A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1813) The Fall of Robespierre.

An Historic Drama (1794) Periodicals Where Was Xanadu Where Was Xanadu? Asian History Glossary, U-Z Where Was Xanadu? Romantic Xanadu, as portrayed in Samuel Coleridge Taylor's poem Kubla Khan, rather than the real historic city of Shang-du. Eric Meola / Getty Images Share By Kallie Szczepanski Xanadu was the summer capital of China's Yuan Dynasty after 1264, located in Inner Mongolia near the modern city of Duolun. At the time, China and Mongolia were united under Mongol rule. The first Yuan emperor, Kublai Khan , established Beijing (then known as Dadu) as the capital of his empire. For the hot, humid summer months, however, he preferred to be closer to the plains of his native Mongolia . Thus, his summer capital moved to Xanadu, previously called Kai Ping. More properly, Xanadu was known as Shangdu or "Upper Capital"; the western world first learned of it through the account by famed Italian explorer Marco Polo of his visit to the city in 1275.

Another European who wrote about the fabled city was Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who portrayed it as the essence of Oriental mystery and wealth in his poem Kubla Khan , published in 1816. Pronunciation: "ZAN-uh-doo" Also Known As: Shangdu, Shangtu, Kai Ping Examples: Kubla Khan Poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Poem Hunter Kubla Khan Poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Poem Hunter Kubla Khan - Poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 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. (1/9/2017 3:00:00 PM) tom allport a poem full of adventurous lines that is meant to continue on in many adventurous minds? truly fabulous writing. (Report) Reply (9/25/2016 5:59:00 AM) 'Kubla khan' is a great poem. In the introduction of The Lyrical Ballads (1798) , Wordsworth and Coleridge professed their points of view regarding the nature of lyric poetry and their own practical principle to be employed in their poems.

Wordsworth concerned himself with nature and human nature and Coleridge often wrote dream poems under the influence of opium and the poems also appeared to be fragmentary. Among the marvellous creations - The Rime of the ancient Mariner, Christabel (in two parts) , Kubla Khan are remarkable. Coleridge is an adept master in the realm of supernatural poetry and he is indebted to Spencer and medieval metrical romance. Kubla Khan, a vision in a dream is a fragmentary dream poem. It is about poetry and poetic inspiration. It is the most imaginative of Coleridge's poems. Swinburne observes, Every line of the poem might be subjected to the like scrutiny but the student would be none nearest to the master's secret. The spirit, the odour in it, the cloven tongue of fire that rests upon its forehead, is a thing neither explicable nor communicable. Kubla Khan is about two kinds of poetry. The first 36 lines are about naturalness, palpability and matter of factness of poetry. The second part of the poem is essentially concerned with divine inspiration. The last part is also on the theory of poetic inspiration and creativity.

The first part is concerned with the relation of man to nature. The second part is related to divine aspect of poetry. Herein lies the organic relations between the two parts. Kubla Khan is indeed a forerunner of modern poetry. There is a chain of ambiguous and paradoxical aspects of poetry and philosophy. Its fragmentary nature indicates its modernity. It is, in its depth, a definite comment on the modern world and its separation of head and heart, action and contemplation. Symbolism is the main criterion of Coleridge's poetical craftsmanship. G. Wilson Knight, in his illuminating article, Coleridge's Divine Comedy, has analysed the symbolism of the poem. Kubla Khan, the great oriental king once ordered that a magnificent pleasure dome be built for him in Xanadu as his summer capital. The sacred river, Alph winding its course through immeasurably deep caves ultimately to sink into a dark subterranean sea. A fertile tract of land, about ten square miles in area was enclosed with walls and towers. There are bright gardens and ancient forests forming a vast green spot. Next the poet describes the source of the river, Alph.

There was a deep, mysterious and fearsome chasm that slanted down a green hill. There are many cedar trees. It was a savage, holy and enchanted place, frequented by a woman desperately wandering about under a waning moon in search of her demon lover. A mighty fountain burst forth from this chasm intermittently. Huge rocks are bursting out of it with the sound of hail storm. The noise is tremendous. The Alph comes out of this fountain and flows for five miles through woods and valleys. Then it sinks into the sunless sea with a loud noise. In the midst of this noise, Kubla Khan could hear the ancestral voices predicting a war. The pleasure - dome was a sunny dome. It's shadow fell midway on the river. While standing here, one could hear the mingled noises from the fountain and the caves. In the second part of the poem, the poet gives a picture of a poet caught in poetic frenzy. Here Coleridge is dealing with the theory of poetic inspiration. In one vision, he saw an Abyssinian maid playing on her dulcimer and singing of the wild splendour of Mount Abora.

The pleasure dome for the poet is a miracle of art because it includes 'sunny-dome' and 'caves of ice' - life and death. Coleridge's concept of poetic frenzy is akin to Shakespearean vision. Humphrey House considers the poem a poetic creation about the ecstasy in imaginative fulfilment. The main metaphorical meaning of the poem is hidden in the concluding part. There is no doubt that Kubla Khan is basically a critical commentary on Plato's theory of poetry. There is the concept of madness in Plato's The Ion and Phaedrus again Shakespeare equates the poet, lover and the lunatic in the same category in A Mid Summer Night's Dream. The 'flashing eyes' and 'floating hair' of Coleridge's poem belong to a poet in the fury of creation. So there are verbal resemblances in the versions of Plato, Shakespeare and Coleridge. Socretes in his Ion compares lyric poets to 'Bacchie maidens who drew milk and honey from the rivers'. They acted under the influence of Dionysus.

In the final section, the poet speaks of a strange vision of an Abyssinian maid playing on her dulcimer and singing of the wild splendour of Mount Abora. The poet is caught in a mood of poetic frenzy with a paradise vision. The readers of inspiratory poetry will go round the poet three times to protect themselves from his magical frenzy. They will experience a kind of fear as one feels in the presence of God. It is holy fear because thought the poet is a magician, there is nothing evil about his magic. The poet seems to be fed and nourished on honey dew falling from the heaven. He drinks nectar, a sort of magical drink which produces divine inspiration in the form of melodious hymn. (Report) Reply Susan Williams (3/8/2016 3:15:00 PM) Coleridge finds a lot of his dramatic material for his poetry in nature. He sees POWER in the workings of nature. He's totally captivated by that power. He wants to duplicate the lightning strike, the intense winds that blow roofs off of houses, the formation of ice, the rampaging waters of a river in flood stage.

He doesn't want to just duplicate them, he wants his poetry to be them. That is typical opium using Coleridge for you. That's why his poems are so intense, emotional and rooted in the natural world. They definitely are not polite, quiet, regular type poems. Nope. He's wanting to create a riot of emotions instead of restraining it. Kubla Khan is probably the most intense, emotional, strange, power-ridden poem you'll ever read. Bringing all that raging power of nature into this is his not very subtle way to get you to think about love, death, the soul, and strange magnetic men called Kubla Khan. (Report) Reply Savita Tyagi (3/8/2016 6:47:00 AM) I read this poem many times and always wondered why Coldridge named it Kubla Khan. There may be many analysts for it but to me the name itself depicts the drama of life. A warrior's life is made up of war and destruction but there must be time for their softer emotions when they try to take care of this earth and admire all it's beauty. Replica of which they try to create.

This contrast of emotions crafted so skillfully in the images of this poem. Just a fantastic poem to read and read again. (Report) Reply Suresh Mohamed (12/22/2015 12:11:00 PM) An Anecdote goes, when Coleridge was writing Kubla Khan seated in his garden one day, he was experiencing the Muse on full flame, a marvellous training of thought was flowing, which Coleridge was so excitedly trying to note down, but hear a sudden thud on his garden gate and he walked up to find a certain Porlock was asking for direction. After assisting him, he sat down again, but he could not recall that train of thought, however hard he tried. Had Mr. Porlock did not disturb Coleridge, we might have gotten a better version of Kubla khan. Damn you, porlock! (Report) Reply (11/9/2014 11:16:00 PM) this is the poem that i was asked to review in my poetry exam!

ah (Report) Reply Terry Craddock (11/9/2014 7:59:00 PM) This poem still intrigues with the siren call of an incredibly powerful opium dream, I have loved these lines for decades and still long for the missing lines left unwritten by an ill timed strangers knock upon the door. (Report) Reply (11/9/2014 8:10:00 AM) A beautiful poem and it is more meaningful with reference to historical event.I liked it. (Report) Reply Frank Avon (11/9/2014 3:49:00 AM) If I had to choose THE best poem in the English language (and what a difficult task that would be!) , I would choose this one. I had to grow into it, however; at one time I thought it was very nearly a nonsense poem, crazy like a dream. But over the years, it has become more and more meaningful. It deals conclusively with Coleridge's favorite theme: the Imagination, its working and its importance.

Its subtlety and yet its accessibility, its intricate form and yet is quotability and simple syntax, its two dramatic parts which at first seem almost unrelated yet turn out to be complementary and perfectly unified - all of these aspects of the poem contribute to its overall quality. And, by the way, don't believe a word of Coleridge's excuse that it is incomplete. It is, indeed, complete and perfectly unified. It's readable and pleasurable without consulting any secondary sources, but if you want to know the sources of some of Coleridge's imagery and get a sense of what these images might have meant to him personally, consult John Livingstone Loewe's 'Road to Xanadu.' Also read the passage in the 'Biographia Literaria' which has to do with C's view of the 'commanding genius' and the creative (or imaginative) genius. Kublai Khan, of course, is the archetype of the 'commanding genius, ' one who hopes to create (or restore) an Eden, or Paradise on earth; the 'I' of the second part has the prospect of representing the creative (or imaginative) genius.

The 'damsel w/ the dulcimer' is, as it were, his Muse, or his imaginative mind. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, 'I' would build the Eden that Kublai Khan envisioned, but without its flaw ('that deep romantic chasm, ' 'a savage place') and without its being subject to the ravages of time ('Ancestral voices prophesying war') . With 'music loud and long, ' or with poetry or one of the other arts, he would call forth 'that dome in air, / That sunny dome') . Of course, the general public is always suspicious of the creative genius, rejecting him/her and attempting to restore common-sense order of things: For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. But even in their plaint they indirectly point to the success of his mission: the milk and honey of the Promised Land, the Paradise (the closing word of this complete, carefully crafted, imaginatively engrossing work of art) .

(Report) Reply Aftab Alam Khursheed (11/9/2014 3:11:00 AM) This poem is dream of STC yet Kubla Khan the Mongol Ruler established his kingdom in China..words are dreaming words very interesting this poem unlike Ancient Mariner very tough in its code AM is about the French Revolution and this is... lovely and famous poem of STC (Report) Reply Kevin Patrick (11/9/2012 10:54:00 PM) years ago I had a collection of romantic and victorian poetry this poem was in it, when I read it I could not help but think how similar it was to the lyrics to the RUSH song of the same name, and then I realized Neal Peart stolle it almost verbatum from this. Well he stole a masterful poem and turned it into a well crafted song.

But Rime of the ancient Mariner is still the best work Coleridge EVER wrote (Report) Reply Kubla Khan K Kubla Khan "Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge , which takes its title from the Mongol and Chinese emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty. Coleridge claimed he wrote the poem in the autumn of 1797 at a farmhouse near Exmoor , England, but it may have been composed on one of a number of other visits to the farm. It also may have been revised a number of times before it was first published in 1816. Structure and theme The poem's opening lines are often quoted, and it introduces the name Xanadu (or Shangdu, the summer palace of Kublai 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.

Coleridge claimed that the poem was inspired by an opium -induced dream (implicit in the poem's subtitle A Vision in a Dream) but that the composition was interrupted by a person from Porlock. A note on a manuscript by Coleridge explicitly states that he had taken opium at the time to combat dysentery . Some have speculated that the vivid imagery of the poem stems from a waking hallucination , most likely opium-induced. Additionally, a quotation from William Bartram is believed to have been a source of the poem. There is widespread speculation on the poem's meaning, some suggesting the author is merely portraying his vision while others insist on a theme or purpose. Kipling said of these lines: A savage place ! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover ! "In all the millions permitted there are no more than five--five little lines--of which one can say: "These are the magic. These are the vision. The rest is only poetry."" The other two lines are in Keats Ode to a Nightingale.

Inspiration for this poem also comes from Marco Polo 's description of Shangdu and Kublai Khan from his book Il Milione, which was included in Samuel Purchas' Pilgrimage, Vol. XI, 231. When he declared himself emperor, the historical Kubla claimed he had the Mandate of Heaven, a traditional Chinese concept of rule by divine permission, and therefore gained absolute control over an entire nation. Between warring and distributing the wealth his grandfather Genghis Khan had won, Kubla spent his summers in Xandu (better known now as Shangdu, or Xanadu) and had his subjects build him a home suitable for a son of God. This story is described in the first two lines of the poem, "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure-dome decree" (1-2). The end of the third paragraph gives us another close-up view of Kubla. At his home, Kubla had, on hand, some ten thousand horses, which he used as a means of displaying his power. Only he and those to whom he gave explicit permission (for committing miscellaneous acts of valor) were allowed to drink their milk.

Hence the closing image of "the milk of Paradise". (54) For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. Other Mentions The first lines of the poem are used in a newsreel account of the massive home built by Charles Foster Kane, a character played by Orson Welles in the American film Citizen Kane (1941). Frankie Goes To Hollywood released a song called "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome" where the first two lines are In Xanadu, did Kubla Kahn, a Pleasure Dome erect. A play on words The lyrics for the Rush song "Xanadu" are taken from the poem. "For I have dined on honeydew and drunk the milk of paradise" (Wikipedia) Kubla Khan and Coleridge's exotic language - The British Library Kubla Khan and Coleridge's exotic language Theme: Romanticism Poet Daljit Nagra explains how Coleridge uses language, form and imagery to create the heady exoticism of Kubla Khan. Writers often create a feeling of otherness by making exotic references. The exotic can be simply defined as a description having the characteristics of a distant foreign place.

Western knowledge about the world beyond Europe originally came from explorers and tradesmen who returned with stories of remarkable places and people with strange habits and customs. The most unfamiliar settings and cultures often inspired the greatest interest. By the time of the Romantic period, poets would recreate exotic worlds as an expression of their heightened imagination. Some of these writers used drugs, which they felt would induce glimpses of the exotic. Coleridge was one such writer; he may even have exaggerated his drug use as a means of self-publicity given readers’ fascination with the idea of the heightened creativity of the drugged genius. Under the influence of opium Coleridge originally took opium in its medicinal form, Laudanum, to alleviate the pain in his knees, which had kept him bed-ridden for several months. His sustained use created a dependency but also, he believed, inspired his verse; to such an extent, in fact, that the absence of drugs deprived him of inspiration as in the well-known account of the writing of ‘ Kubla Khan ’. Coleridge claimed that the poem had come to him while under the influence of opium, but that his creative vision was interrupted by a man from the village of Porlock who knocked on his door about some business.

By the time their exchange had ended, almost an hour later, the vision had fled, and when Coleridge returned to the poem he could record no more of it. Academics may have argued about the reliability of this story, but the man from Porlock now exists as a metaphor of daily realities undermining creative genius. An Inquiry into the Nature and Properties of Opium Samuel Crumpe's Inquiry into the Nature and Properties of Opium (1793) considers the medical uses of opium. Coleridge took opium 'to check a dysentry' as well as for more recreational purposes. Free from known copyright restrictions Exotic qualities ‘Kubla Khan’ may have been embarked upon after a drug induced state but it has been carefully crafted despite its fragmentary nature. There is a clear-headed line-by-line mastery and control of poetic forms, not least Coleridge’s deliberate use of exotic language and imagery to help him create a powerful sense of otherness. The poem’s exotic qualities are present from the opening line, which is incredibly charged and emphasises two Eastern names.

The syntactically wrought nature of the opening energises the force of these names: the opening could read, ‘Kubla Khan decreed that a stately pleasure-dome be built in Xanadu’ but Coleridge instead states, much more memorably: ‘In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree…’ We do not know who Kubla Khan is or his motive for building the dome, and this lack of knowledge allows us to focus on the fabulous construction. Alongside these decontextualised names is that of the river, Alph. Many critics believe that Coleridge is referring to Greek river Alpheus. If this is the case he is positioning our imaginations both in the Classical past of Europe and the past of the East through references to Xanadu, the palace of a Mongol ruler, and Kubla Khan, emperor of China. Purchas his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World and the Religions Purchas his Pilgrimage (1613) is a survey of the religions and cultures of the world written by Samuel Purchas; Coleridge stated that he was reading it before he wrote ‘Kubla Khan’.

Free from known copyright restrictions Forbidden, primitive, enchanting and savage The exotic usually has a forbidden quality because it is not easy to access. It may also appear primitive and at one with nature; its lack of modern sophistication removes it further from our western mechanised world, and Coleridge relies on these assumptions to describe the region in which the pleasure-dome exists. The pleasure-dome is described in general terms to heighten the foreign mood, the caverns are described as being ‘measureless’, the sea exists in a ‘sunless’ area, and many perfections abound such as ‘gardens bright’, ‘sinuous rills’, ‘incense-bearing tree[s]’, and even the forests are recalled in terms of time and ageless features, ‘forests ancient as the hills’. Coleridge then intensifies the exoticised landscape by describing it as being, ‘A savage place! as holy and enchanted / As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted…’ The exclamatory reference to the ‘place’ is a warning because we then learn it is seductive, ‘enchanted’, and the half-rhyme of ‘enchanted’ and ‘haunted’ all reinforce the feeling that the holiness here is heathen.

Coleridge has brought us to the altar of a dark and dangerous region that he is enticed by and we in turn cannot but help enjoy as the strong rhythms and the lively language put us under the enchantment of this powerful exotic world. Designs of Chinese Buildings and Furniture William Chambers’s Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and Utensils (1757) was drawn from the author’s years spent in China. Free from known copyright restrictions Visions of women Descriptions of women are central to the poem. Coleridge first mentions a ‘woman wailing for her demon-lover!’ who is situated in a ‘deep romantic chasm’. From this lowered region she has been condemned to the most intense grief by the absence of her ‘demon-lover’. Coleridge’s rich description of the effect of such grief on the woman is key to heightening the poem’s exotic mood. In the final section of the poem, which reads as if written after the man from Porlock knocks at the door, Coleridge describes an exotic vision of an Abyssinian maid playing a dulcimer and singing of Mount Abora, a place which does not exist in the real world.

Coleridge expresses a desire to revive the vision to the extent that it could transport him back to the pleasure dome and frustration that this is not possible. ‘Kubla Khan’ gives us a too-brief glimpse into an exotic world and by snatching it away, gives us a wonderful insight into the limits of a great Romantic imagination. Manuscript of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' The ‘Crewe manuscript’ of ‘Kubla Khan’, in Coleridge’s handwriting, was made before the publication date of the poem (1816), and shows several differences from the published version.

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 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 ; 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 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, 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. 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 !

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ 30ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ 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,ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ 35ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 't would win me, That with music loud and long ,ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ 45ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ 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! 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. BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The poem Kubla Khan was inspired by the great Kublai Khan (this is an example of one of the author's numerous spelling errors in this poem).He was, historically, a thirteenth-century descendant of Genghis Khan who had built the palace of K'ai P'ing, which is translated to a homophone of Xanadu. This poem is divided into two parts. First one, (written in third person), the author talks about the place that Kubla Khan wanted to build his palace. It is a description of a dome and large garden. This is portrayed as earthly heaven, surrounded by ancient forests, blooming and bright. It begins with the allusion to the sacred river Alph. All related to nature.

So that is the explanation of the born, life and death of that river into the sea. One of the topics that we found in the poem is paganism against Christianity, related to the river Alph too. That means referring to an underground river that passed through dimensions that could not be understood by any man, and then emptying into an underground sea. Another topic that the poem introduces is biblical reference when it talks about the garden. It is referring to the Garden of Eden: 'gardens bright with sinuous rills.' (line 8) ï¿½Sinuous rillsï¿½ can be represented as two different metaphors: 'rills' can mean either a stream or a valley on the moon. The moon is seen as the source of all creativity in romantic idealism, and so this first metaphor is significant in the poem. On the contrary, when it speaks of 'forests ancient as the hills,/ Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.' (lines 10-11), this reference to the sun contrasts with the valleys on the moon. The second metaphor refers to that of the snake in the Garden of Eden.

The word sinuous implies snakelike, and the connection of these small tributaries to the river Alph. The author is talking about a woman who is Eve, and she is 'wailing' for the source of her desires, literally her demon lover, but figuratively the apple that got her threw out of Eden. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Another symbolical characteristic that we found in the poem is the number five. It can be found twice in Kubla Khan, the first time when speaking of Khan's palace of Xanadu. Coleridge says 'twice five miles' instead of simply saying ten. The second use of the number five is after the pleasure dome has been subdued by nature's wrath. The significance of the number five is huge in paganism. The number five refers to the fifth element, spirit, which in pagan belief is the source of all magic and life on Earth. Another number that we found in the poem is number three.

The three circles that they 'weave' around him are both an ancient, superstitious ritual to keep an evil spirit at bay, and a reference to the holy trinity. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ In the second part of the poem, there is a change in subject, writing and tone. While in the first line of the poem begins ï¿½In Xanadu did Kubla Khanï¿½ (line 1) referring to a male, the second part of the poem is referred to a female character ï¿½A damsel with a dulcimerï¿½ (line 37), emphasizing the change in sections and the difference between paganism and Christianity, as well as continuing Coleridge's obsession with sex in nature. The poem closes talking about ï¿½And drunk milk of Paradiseï¿½ (line 54), here the author maybe tries to say that his life has been very luxury and he was a powerful man.

But can not forget that Coleridge was an opium addict, and maybe in one of that ï¿½tripsï¿½ that he had, saw that land Xanadu, with its leader Kubla Khan, and later wrote that poem to have constancy of what he have lived. It seems that was his addiction what made the poem of only one topic and the lack of succession on the facts that he explains, because the poet could write what he thoughts at that moment [1] . Another point to consider is the society of Coleridgeï¿½s time. Actually he lived in a period called the Napoleonic era. At this time, the French Revolution was in its final period, and also the Industrial Revolution could influence his writings, as it took place in the late XVIII century. The Industrial Revolution brought several changes in society that affected people, for example the urbanization, changes in agriculture, introduction of railways, new machineries etc. Like Coleridgeï¿½s personality, his writings have a loose and disorganised connection. His philosophy of unity is one of the fundamental contexts of his writings. At that time, there are many political and social changes in Britain and Europe.

He moves from radical to conservative, from necessitarian rationalist to philosophical idealism and Anglican Christianity. So that this representative qualities give importance to Coleridgeï¿½s successes but more to his failures. But his most considerable influence knew his closest friend, William Wordsworth. The poetry that produce in that period of intimacy with the Wordsworth family, constitutes perhaps his least claim to greatness. The ï¿½Conversationï¿½ poems were mainly written at this time, as were ï¿½The Ancient Marinerï¿½, conceived as Coleridgeï¿½s principal contribution to the ï¿½Lyrical Balladsï¿½, and also both ï¿½Kubla Khanï¿½ and the first part of ï¿½Christabelï¿½. We appreciate several irregularities through the text. We have found some stylistic resources throughout the poem. First, we can see the predominance of nature over many other topics, so the semantic field of the poem is nature.

Some words related to it are: ï¿½riverï¿½(l.3), ï¿½sunless seaï¿½, ï¿½treeï¿½ (l.9), ï¿½forestsï¿½ (l.10), ï¿½sunnyï¿½ (l.11), ï¿½hillï¿½ (l.13), ï¿½earthï¿½ (l.18), ï¿½fountainï¿½ (l. 19), ï¿½rocksï¿½ (l.23), ï¿½oceanï¿½ (l.28), ï¿½wavesï¿½ (l.32), ï¿½airï¿½ (l.46). We can found many parallelisms, same word beginning many lines, in that poem is the word ï¿½Andï¿½ (l. 8, 10, 17, 23, 28, 29, 40, 48, 49, 52 and 54).

Other resource found is a comparison using the link ï¿½likeï¿½: ï¿½Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hailï¿½ (l. 21). On the second part of the poem we can appreciate another stylistic resource, the hyperbaton: ï¿½A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision once I saw:ï¿½, that is not the correct form of writing, because the first line has to go besides the second one, there is a change of lines.ï¿½ The text uses many exclamations to make the reader feel the musicality of the poem. Repetition of words like ï¿½sacred riverï¿½ (l. 24, 26), ï¿½tumultï¿½ (l. 28, 29), and the repetition of the word ï¿½Beware!ï¿½(l.49), is an example of a common device in romantic writing. It is when an author wants to stress an image or a feeling that a word is using, he would repeat the word, drilling it into the reader's mind.

According to the relation of this poem with the rest of the poetï¿½s poetic production, we can explain that ï¿½Kubla Khanï¿½ together with ï¿½Christabelï¿½, are two of the uncompleted Coleridgeï¿½s poems.ï¿½ This was because, according to Coleridge, the parts that have been not found, were lost in the transition between the dream and the awake. That poem is written like a chant and uses the Coleridge yambic tetrameter and the rhythmical alteration. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ It is important to mention the situation of the author when he wrote this poem. In fact, it was in the summer of the year 1797, when the author retired himself to a lonely farm house between Porlock and Linton, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire, because of an illness.

In consequence of a slight indisposition, and anodyne had been prescribed, from the effect of which he feel asleep in his chair at the moment that he was reading the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in ï¿½Purchasï¿½s Pilgrimage:ï¿½ ï¿½here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be build, and a stately garden thereunto: and thus ten miles of fertile ground were enclosed with a wall.ï¿½ The author continued for about three hours to a profound sleep, at least for the eternal senses, during which time he was the most vivid confidence, that he could not have composed from less than two or three hundred lines; if that indeed can be called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation of consciousness of effort. On awaking he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are preserved.

At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had past away [2] . ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Nowadays we can make a relation between the poem and people who take drugs. Actually, when you swallow some hallucinogenic substances, you get into a ï¿½worldï¿½ where all seems perfect and ï¿½fantasticï¿½ for you. No worry neither nostalgia could invade your brain. In other words, you do not take control of anything. Totally the contrary, drugs take control of you.ï¿½ï¿½ - Jackson, H. J., ed. Samuel Taylor Coleridge Selected Poetry. Great Britain: Oxford, 1997. - Newlyn, Lucy, ed.

The Cambridge Companion to Coleridge. United Kingdom: Cambridge, 2002. ï¿½WEBGRAPHY: - Poemas. Colecciï¿½n de poesï¿½as ï¿½ poemas, 2007. 17 Nov. 2007 - Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 18 Nov. 2007 - El Sueï¿½o de Coleridge. Jorge Luï¿½s Borges. 16 Nov. 2007 - Cosa Fï¿½cil. 20 Nov. 2007 - Dictionary. From late 18th/Early 19th ï¿½ Century English, Classical Greek, and Coleridge Inventions to late 20th ï¿½ Century American. 16 Nov. 2007 #momently [1] Ideas taken from ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ [2] Ideas based on Selected Poetry (1997). Oxford University Press by H.J.

Jackson.ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½

Question: Who wrote the line "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree"?
Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge