The poem was composed in the summer of 1798 when Coleridge, having taken an opiate pain-killer, fell asleep whilst reading Purchas his Pilgrimage (1626; Book Iv, Ch 8, p 418: “In Xanadu did Culblai Can build a stately palace, encompassing sixteene miles of plaine ground with a wall…”). Coleridge awoke from the dream with an entire poem of 2-300 lines in his head and indited the following lines before the visit of a person from Porlock interrupted his thoughts. When he returned to his poem, “All the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast”.
| | | In Xanadu did Kubla Khan |
| | | A stately pleasure-dome decree: |
| | | Where Alph, the sacred river, ran |
| | | Through caverns measureless to man |
| 5 | | 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; |
| 10 | | 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 |
| 15 | | 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: |
| 20 | | 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. |
| 25 | | 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 |
| 30 | | 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. |
| 35 | | 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, |
| 40 | | 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, |
| 45 | | 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! |
| 50 | | 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. |
First published 1798 / 1816.
Contributed by Robert Clark.
