English Literature / Unit 12 ENL 1134 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"Kubla Khan"
Captions available
The idea
"Kubla Khan," written in seventeen ninety-seven, published in eighteen sixteen, opens, "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree." Coleridge's preface says it came in an opium dream and was cut short when "a person on business from Porlock" interrupted him, leaving a fragment.
In practice
Xanadu, a dream, an interruption.
Where people slip
The Porlock story is Coleridge's own account.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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