Hello and welcome back to the daily poem. I'm David Kern. Today's poem is by Samuel Taylor

Coleridge called Kubla Khan. This is a poem that has a fascinating story behind it.

Well, I think it's fascinating.

And I'm going to tell a little bit about that.

But first, I'm going to read it.

This is a poem that was originally written in about 1798

and then eventually published in 1816. It an irregular form coleridge is famous for his

relationship with William Wordsworth with whom he was great friends and he also wrote a prose work

called biographia literaria which as William harmon, combines autobiography with criticism

and remains a masterpiece of wisdom and insight into the subtlest of human arts.

Kubla Khan, as a poem, you might recognize from the movie Citizen Kane,

where it is recited at the beginning.

I'm going to read it once, and then I'll tell you the story behind it,

or let William Harmon help me with that, and then I'll read it one more time.

This is Kubla Khan, or a vision in a dream, a fragment.

In Zanadu 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 of thwart a cedar and cover,

...