Write a sustained close analysis of 'Kubla Khan' paying attention to both the form and content of the poem.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's visionary Kubla Khan (1797-8) arose out of a narcotic induced dream. According to the poet's preface, he had consumed an effective amount of laudanum, and while reading from Purchas Pilgrimage travel book of 1613, describing the Khan and his empire, he fell asleep - 'at least of the external senses' and dreamed that he had composed up to three hundred lines of poetry without conscious effort. However whilst documenting these lines he was …

…iambic and trochaic tetrameters and a solitary trimeter) for generations to come. References: Gale, (1997). Kubla Khan. (www.galegroup.com/free-resources/poets/poems/kublakhan-ex.htm). Holmes, R (1996). Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Poetry. London: Penguin. (p 337). Howard, J.A (1999). Kubla Khan. (www.sesk.org/aesthetics/literature/english/romantics/coleridge/kublakhan.htm.) Sanders, A (ed) (2004). The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (p 372). Wu, D (ed) (2003). Romanticism: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell publishing Ltd. (p 461).