Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Kubla Khan ordered a grand pleasure dome built near a sacred river flowing to an unknown sea. It depicts a legendary, grand construction.
In plain terms
A king decreed a palace near a mysterious river.
What can you take from it?
Great visions often start with a single command.

Where it applies

  • writing fantasy
  • imagining cities
  • historical fiction

Putting it to work

  • setting a scene
  • describing dreams
  • creative writing

Questions to consider

  • What places do you imagine?
  • How do leaders shape space?

Another view

The vision might remain purely imagined and never realized.

More from Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  1. The Mariner, whose eye is bright, Whose beard with age is hoar, Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest Turned from the bridegroom's door. He went like one that hat…

    Permalink to quote #76
  2. 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 incen…

    Permalink to quote #78
  3. He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.

    Permalink to quote #75

Related quotes

  1. They found the Spring in the heart of the Forest; only once long ago had Niggle imagined it, but he had never drawn it. Now he perceived that it was the source…

    J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. Tolkien quote #29
  2. And when he came to the place where the wild things are, they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and s…

    Maurice SendakMaurice Sendak quote #1
  3. I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - That myth is more potent than history. I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts - That hope a…

    Robert FulghumRobert Fulghum quote #1