Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan" (Xanadu)

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan" is a famous Romantic-era work that vividly depicts the exotic, dreamlike pleasure-dome of Xanadu and has become iconic for its rich imagery and fragmentary, visionary quality.


Statements (48)
Predicate Object
instanceOf Romantic poem
poem
alternativeTitle Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream
Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment
associatedConcept Xanadu as an idealized, exotic paradise
poetic inspiration as trance or dream
author Samuel Taylor Coleridge
basedOn Kublai Khan
compositionDate 1797
countryOfOrigin United Kingdom
criticalReputation celebrated for rich, dreamlike imagery
one of the most famous poems of English Romanticism
describedAs fragment
vision in a dream
firstPublicationDate 1816
firstPublishedIn Christabel; Kubla Khan, a Vision; The Pains of Sleep
form accentual verse
irregular meter
genre lyric poetry
visionary poem
hasParatext Coleridge’s preface describing an interrupted opium dream
influenceOnCulture popularized the name Xanadu in Western culture
influenceOnLiterature inspired numerous later Romantic and modernist writers
inspiredBy Samuel Purchas’s travel book Purchas, His Pilgrimage
language English
lineCount 54
literaryMovement Romanticism
mainCharacter Kublai Khan
meter variable iambic and accentual patterns
notableImage Abyssinian maid with a dulcimer
caverns measureless to man
pleasure-dome
sunless sea
openingLine In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
period Romantic era
placeOfComposition near Porlock, Somerset
publisher John Murray
rhymeScheme irregular rhyme scheme
setting Xanadu
pleasure-dome of Xanadu
structure two main movements
subjectMatter Kublai Khan’s decree to build a stately pleasure-dome in Xanadu
theme creative power
exoticism
imagination
nature and the sublime
the limits of artistic creation
title Kubla Khan

Referenced by (3)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
pleasure-dome of Xanadu (""Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream"")
appearsIn
Kubla Khan ("Christabel; Kubla Khan, a Vision; The Pains of Sleep")
firstPublishedIn
Xanadu hypertext system
hasNameOrigin

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