Kubla Khan - Definition and Overview

Kubla Khan is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge which takes its title from the Mongol/Chinese emperor Kublai Khan, of the Yuan dynasty. Coleridge claimed that it was written in the autumn of 1797 at a farmhouse near Exmoor, but it may have been composed on one of a number of other visits to the farm. It may also have been revised a number of times before it was first published in 1816.

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 the man from Porlock. This claim is highly unlikely, as opium users have tremendous difficulty recalling dreams when opium was ingested just prior to sleeping. Some have speculated that the vivid imagery of the poem stems from a waking hallucination, albeit most likely opium-induced.

There is widespread speculation on the poem's meaning, some suggesting the author merely is portraying his vision while others insist on a theme or purpose. One critic went so far as to describe it as a metaphor for sexual intercourse. Others believe it is a poem stressing the beauty of creation.

The full text is reproduced here (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html), along with the famous note (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/notes.html#KublaKhan) with which it was accompanied when first published, as well as a marginal note on an original manuscript copy in Coleridge's own hand, and a quote from William Bartram which is believed to have been a source of the poem.

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Kubla Khan