Christabel. Kubla Khan and Vision. The Pains of Sleep

Samuel Taylor Coleridge began writing Christabel in 1797, during a highly productive period of his poetic career. He worked on it intermittently and completed two parts by 1800. Despite his initial intentions to finish the poem, it remained incomplete. The first publication of Christabel occurred in 1816 when Lord Byron encouraged Coleridge to publish it alongside Kubla Khan and The Pains of Sleep.

When Christabel was finally published, it received mixed reactions. Many admired its haunting atmosphere, musicality, and supernatural elements, but some found its unfinished nature frustrating. Lord Byron, however, was highly impressed and even borrowed the poem’s distinct meter for his The Siege of Corinth. The poem’s irregular, innovative meter (an extension of ballad traditions) influenced many later poets, including the Romantics and Victorians.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) was an English poet, philosopher, and critic best known for launching the Romantic movement alongside William Wordsworth. Born in Ottery St Mary, Devon, Coleridge displayed remarkable intellectual abilities from a young age. He attended Cambridge but left without completing his degree. His early enthusiasm for radical politics led him to consider founding a utopian society in America, though this plan never materialized.

Coleridge’s most famous works include The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, and Biographia Literaria. He struggled with ill health and opium addiction, which greatly influenced his later life and writing. Despite personal struggles, his contributions to literary criticism and Romantic poetry were profound.

One of the most famous anecdotes about Coleridge involves the writing of Kubla Khan, another of his visionary poems. According to Coleridge, he had composed the poem in a dream while under the influence of opium. Still, a "person from Porlock" interrupted his creative flow, after which he could not remember the rest. This story has become a symbol of lost inspiration, and "a person from Porlock" is now used to refer to any unwelcome interruption of creativity.

Though Christabel remains unfinished, its eerie, dreamlike quality and influence on later poets solidify its place as one of Coleridge’s most intriguing works.

Another book by the Lake Poets was published by Rambler Press in 2022. We also released a two-volume edition of Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

174,5 x 249  mm, 80 pp., this edition of 25 copies has been set in 14-point Monotype Bulmer and printed on the cotton Zuber Rider paper.

In a slipcase, all copies are bound by hand by Krzysztof Cofalik in quarter-leather with marbled paper sides.

Since our books are hand-bound, order processing takes approximately 21 working days. If the title ordered is available in our bookstore, we will ship it the day after the payment is credited.