Kubla Khan
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.
Bio
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a major English Romantic poet, literary critic, and philosopher. Along with William Wordsworth, he helped launch the Romantic Movement in England with their joint publication “Lyrical Ballads” (1798). He is best known for his poems “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan,” the latter supposedly written after an opium-induced dream.
Born in Devonshire, Coleridge was a precocious child who read voraciously. He attended Christ’s Hospital school in London and later Cambridge University, though he never completed his degree. Throughout his life, he struggled with opium addiction, chronic health problems, and personal debts.
Despite these challenges, he produced influential works of literary criticism and philosophy, including “Biographia Literaria.” His concept of “willing suspension of disbelief” remains fundamental to literary theory. He also made significant contributions to criticism of Shakespeare and introduced German idealist philosophy to English audiences.
Coleridge died in Highgate, London, having spent his final years under the care of Dr. James Gillman, who helped him manage his opium dependency. His influence on English literature and thought extends well beyond his own era, impacting writers and thinkers through the present day.
