KUBLA KHAN

1In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 2A stately pleasure-dome decree : 3Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 4Through caverns measureless to man 5Down to a sunless sea. 6So twice five miles of fertile ground 7With walls and towers were girdled round : 8And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 9Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; 10And here were forests ancient as the hills, 11Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. 12But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted 13Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover ! 14A savage place ! as holy and enchanted 15As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted 16By woman wailing for her demon-lover ! 17And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, 18As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, 19A mighty fountain momently was forced : 20Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst 21Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, 22Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail : 23And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever 24It flung up momently the sacred river. 25Five miles meandering with a mazy motion 26Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, 27Then reached the caverns measureless to man, 28And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean : 29And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far 30Ancestral voices prophesying war ! 31The shadow of the dome of pleasure 32Floated midway on the waves ; 33Where was heard the mingled measure 34From the fountain and the caves. 35It was a miracle of rare device, 36A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice ! 37A damsel with a dulcimer 38In a vision once I saw : 39It was an Abyssinian maid, 40And on her dulcimer she played, 41Singing of Mount Abora. 42Could I revive within me 43Her symphony and song, 44To such a deep delight 'twould win me, 45That with music loud and long, 46I would build that dome in air, 47That sunny dome ! those caves of ice ! 48And all who heard should see them there, 49And all should cry, Beware ! Beware ! 50His flashing eyes, his floating hair ! 51Weave a circle round him thrice, 52And close your eyes with holy dread, 53For he on honey-dew hath fed, 54And drunk the milk of Paradise.

1. The Subtitle Difference: The Crewe MS bears the title: "Kubla Khan: Or, A Vision in a Dream." The 1816 Murray edition added: "A Fragment" alongside the famous disclaimer apologizing for its unfinished state. 2. Absence of the "Person from Porlock" Preface: The Crewe Holograph note is brief: "This fragment with a good deal more, not recoverable, composed, in a sort of Reverie brought on by two grains of Opium..." Notably, the manuscript contains no mention of the famous visitor. Modern critics (Elisabeth Schneider, Jack Stillinger, Christopher Laxer) debate whether the elaborate 1816 "person on business from Porlock" preface reflects literal biographical memory or an apologetic psychological and aesthetic framing strategy designed to disarm critical charges of indolence and fragmentation. 3. Mount Amara vs. Mount Abora (Line 41): In the Crewe MS, Line 41 originally read: "Singing of Mount Amara"—directly invoking John Milton's Paradise Lost (Book IV: "Nor where Abassin kings their issues guard, Mount Amara..."). Coleridge later altered it to the euphonic "Mount Abora". 4. Metric Punctuation: Coleridge's manuscript employs long dashes (—) and exclamation marks that direct oral theatrical breathing, rather than standard grammatical syntax. 5. 19-Year Hybrid Reception: Between 1797 and 1816, the poem flourished within a hybrid network of intimate scribal circulation (such as the copy sent to Elizabeth Smith) and living oral salon performances. Lord Byron heard Coleridge recite it in London (c. 1815–1816, famously witnessed by Leigh Hunt at 13 Piccadilly Terrace in April 1816) and was so transfixed that he personally urged publisher John Murray to issue it.