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Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Ottery
St. Mary on 21 October 1772, youngest of
the ten children of John Coleridge, a minister,
and Ann Bowden Coleridge. He was often bullied
as a child by Frank, the next youngest, and
his mother was apparently a bit distant,
so it was no surprise when Samuel ran away
at age seven. He was found early the next
morning by a neighbour, but the events of
his night outdoors frequently showed up in
imagery in his poems (and his nightmares)
as well as the notebooks he kept for most
of his adult life. John Coleridge died in
1781, and Samuel was sent away to a London
charity school for children of the clergy.
He stayed with his maternal uncle. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was really quite
a prodigy; he devoured books and eventually
earned that place in his class.
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Kubla Khan
Or, a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment.
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.
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;
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
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:
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.
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
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.
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,
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,
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!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair! 1
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,²
And drunk the milk of Paradise.³
1 The eponymous opium-eater.
2 Evidence from his manuscripts show that
this was opium - Coleridge was well known
to be a recreational user of laudanum, a
drink made from opium and alcohol.
3 The published version is only 54 lines in
length.
4 Grandson of Ghengis.
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