Kubla Khan: a new poem-film
- Jo Clement
- May 15
- 1 min read
Updated: Jun 7
Directed by Savannah Acquah and filmed at the Lake District, this poem-film was made in collaboration with WritersMosaic and the Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation. In it, I recite Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan'.
Broadly, scholars agree that the poem began life in a Somerset farmhouse in Autumn 1797. It was first published almost two decades later, in 1816, when Coleridge was under both financial duress and pressure to publish from Lord Byron. Now regarded as an exemplar of Romanticism, the poem's unfinished nature led to a surprisingly tepid response from its first readers.
Many objected to the poem's origins. Coleridge famously took two grains of opium to assuage a stomach pain so severe he couldn't walk. He fell asleep in his armchair, with a binding of Samuel Purchas' travel book in his lap. He slept for three hours, vividly imagining Shangdu, China. The poem and this literary legend about its creation were dreamed into being, only to be rudely awakened by someone person on business from Porlock rapping on his front door.
The poem explores how the act of writing a poem often involves making translations across multiple senses, histories, and experiences. It's also about consciousness and where we find ourselves present.
Watch it here and make up your own mind:
