Kubla Khan, or a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment. is a famous 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. Kublai Khan, Khubilai Khan or the last of the Great Khans (September 23, 1215[8] - February 18, 1294[9]) (Mongolian: Хубилай хаан, Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ), was a Mongol military leader. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) (pronounced ) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. ... Expansion of the Mongol Empire Another picture of Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire (Mongolian: Их Монгол Улс, literally meaning Greater Mongol Nation; 1206–1405) was the largest contiguous land empire in history, covering over 33 million km² [1] (12 million square miles) at its peak, with an estimated population of over 100 million... The king or wang (王 wáng) was the Chinese head of state from the Zhou to Qin dynasties. ... Kublai Khan, Khubilai Khan or the last of the Great Khans (September 23, 1215[8] - February 18, 1294[9]) (Mongolian: Хубилай хаан, Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ), was a Mongol military leader. ... The four successor Khanates of the Mongol Empire Capital Dadu Language(s) Mongolian Chinese Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1260-1294 Kublai Khan  - 1333-1370 Ukhaatu Khan History  - establishing the Yuan Dynasty 1271  - Fall of Dadu September 14, 1368 Population  - 1330 est. ... 1797 (MDCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Dunster Yarn Market (a covered market for the sale of local cloth, built in 1609) and Dunster Castle, Exmoor Exmoor National Park is a national park situated on the Bristol Channel coast of Devon and Somerset in South West England. ... 1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

The poem's opening lines are often quoted, and it introduces the name Xanadu (or Shangdu, the summer palace of Kublai Khan): This article is about the summer capital of Kublai Khans empire. ...

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 the person from Porlock. Some have speculated that the vivid imagery of the poem stems from a waking hallucination, albeit most likely opium-induced. Additionally a quote from William Bartram^[1] 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. Others believe it is a poem stressing the beauty of creation. This article does not adequately cite its references. ... Porlock village, Somerset, England The Person from Porlock was an unwelcome visitor to Samuel Taylor Coleridge who called by during his composition of the oriental poem Kubla Khan. ... A hallucination is a sensory perception experienced in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion, which is a misperception of an external stimulus. ... William Bartram (April 20, 1739 -July 22, 1823) was an American naturalist, the son of John Bartram. ... Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ...

However, it is important to remember that 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. By declaring himself emperor, the historical Kublai aligned himself to the Chinese divine right, the Mandate of Heaven, and therefore gained absolute control over an entire nation. Between warring and distributing the wealth his grandfather Genghis Khan had won, Kublai 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, Kublai 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 valour was allowed to drink their milk. Hence the closing image of “the milk of Paradise.” (54) Marco Polo (September 15, 1254 – January 8, 1324) was a Venetian trader and explorer who gained fame for his worldwide travels, recorded in the book Il Milione (The Million or The Travels of Marco Polo). ... A page of The Travels of Marco Polo The Travels of Marco Polo is the usual English title of Marco Polos travel book, Il Millione (The Million). ... Samuel Purchas (1575?-1626), was an English travel writer, a near-contemporary of Richard Hakluyt. ... Mandate of Heaven (天命 PÄ«nyÄ«n: Tiānmìng) was a traditional Chinese sovereignty concept of legitimacy used to support the rule of the kings of the Zhou Dynasty and later the Emperors of China. ... For other uses, see Genghis Khan (disambiguation). ...

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Borges and Kubla Khan

In his essay "Coleridge's Dream" Borges notes that twenty years following the final revision of the poem, a fourteenth-century Persian work called The Compendium of Histories by Rashid al-Din was published in English for the first time. This work included the detail that the inspiration for Kubla Khan's palace was given to him in a dream. Near the end of the essay Borges writes,

The first dream added a palace to reality; the second, which occurred five centuries later, a poem (or the beginning of a poem) suggested by the palace; the similarity of the dreams hints of a plan; the enormous length of time involved reveals a superhuman executor... It is legitimate to suspect that he has not yet achieved his goal... Such facts raise the possibility that this series of dreams and works has not yet ended. The first dreamer was given the vision of the palace, and he built it; the second, who did not know of the other's dream, was given the poem about the palace. If this plan does not fail, someone, on a night centuries removed from us, will dream the same dream, and not suspect that others have dreamed it, and he will give it a form of marble or music. Perhaps this series of dreams has no end, or perhaps the last will be the key... Perhaps an archetype not yet revealed to mankind, an eternal object, is gradually entering the world. (Source: Borges, Selected Non-Fictions)

Kubla Khan in popular culture

In Orson Welles' famous film Citizen Kane, the main character's vast, Byzantine estate is called Xanadu — and was based on real-life newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst's resplendent home (Hearst Castle) at San Simeon, California. The Canadian progressive rock power trio, Rush, wrote and recorded a song called "Xanadu" based on Coleridge's work. The song appears on their 1977 album, A Farewell to Kings, and it offers a much more pessimistic take on the poem's paradisaical vision of immortality. The song "Welcome to the Pleasuredome", the epic title track to the 1984 album by the British dance band Frankie Goes to Hollywood is also inspired by Coleridge's poem and features the opening two lines spoken in recitation. The poem, and its nonexistent second part, also plays a central role in the plot of Douglas Adams' novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency as the ramblings of a ghost who accidentally created the human race. This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery/drama film released by RKO Pictures and directed by Orson Welles, his first feature film. ... William Randolph Hearst (April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper magnate. ... The Hearst Castle facade is patterned after a Spanish cathedral. ... San Simeon (ZIP Code: 93452) is a settlement on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California notable in two respects: Its position along Cabrillo Hwy is almost precisely halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, each of those towns being roughly 230 mi (370 km) away. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... The power trio is a rock and roll band format popularized in the 1960s (see 1960s in music). ... Rush is a Canadian rock band comprised of bassist, keyboardist, and vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. ... Xanadu is a song recorded by the Canadian progressive rock trio Rush for their 1977 album A Farewell to Kings. ... Rush (A Farewell to Kings) A Farewell to Kings is the fifth studio album by the Canadian band Rush, released in 1977 (see 1977 in music). ... Welcome To The Pleasuredome is the title track of the 1984 debut album by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. ... Welcome to the Pleasuredome was the highly successful debut album by British pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, first released in 1984 by Island Records. ... Frankie Goes to Hollywood (FGTH) was a UK New wave band that was popular in early 1980s. ... Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. ... Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency is a novel by Douglas Adams. ...

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Kubla Khan

• Full text of the poem
• Coleridge's note and other notes about the poem
• "Kubla Khan" and the Embodied Mind, a detailed analysis of the poem
• One Candle, a Thousand Points of Light, an exploration of the poem's role in propagating the Xanadu meme
• Kubla Khan Set To Music, analysis & a musical approach to the themes of the poem for students & teachers of English