Kubla Khan

The Ballad of Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

There is a fascinating story associated with the writing of Kubla Khan. In October 1797 Coleridge was in ill-health and staying at a lonely farmhouse near Porlock in Somerset. He had been prescribed opium which was used at the time as a painkiller, but which is also addictive and can have strange effects on the mind. The opium sent him into what he described as a 'profound sleep, at least of the external senses'. While in this drug-induced state, he experienced a dream, or vision, triggered by a book of 17th century tales of travel and voyaging which he was reading. The book was open at the following passage:

In Xanadu did Cublai Can build a stately Palace, encompassing sixteene miles of plaine ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant Springs, delightful Streames, and all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the middest thereof a sumptuous house of pleasure, which may be removed from place to place.

On waking, Coleridge grabbed paper and ink and began to write down the images from his dream. Before he had time to finish he wrote that he was interrupted by 'a person on business from Porlock' and was away from the farmhouse for over an hour. When he returned he found that, to his 'no small surprise and mortification', he could not remember any more details of the 'vision' apart from 'some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast'.

Kubla Khan was eventually published, at Byron's suggestion, in 1816. It seems likely that, despite Coleridge's claim to have composed the poem entirely during his 'Reverie', he actually worked on it subsequently. The finished poem points to Coleridge's imaginative genius and poetic craftsmanship, rather than to the euphoria of a drug-induced state.

The whole experience confirmed Coleridge's belief in the creative potential of the unconscious mind. Once trapped, the hidden sources of creativity are accessible without effort, but they can also suddenly be closed.

Ever since Kubla Khan first appeared there has been debate about what it means. However, whatever critics may argue, generations of readers have been moved by the power of the language (for example, the last two lines are among the most quoted in English literature) even if the exact meaning is unclear and open to speculation. Like much great poetry, we find ourselves responding with our own imaginations, filling the gaps between Coleridge's words.

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 blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree.
And here were forests as ancient as the hills,
enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But O! 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 reach'd the caverns measureless to man,
and sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean.
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from afar
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.


Published 1816

Read about Coleridge's addiction with opium