Editing Kubla Khan (section)

===Publication===
[[File:Christabel, Kubla Khan, and Pains of Sleep titlepage.jpg|thumb|right|Title page of ''Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep'' (1816)]]

After its composition, Coleridge periodically read the poem to friends, as to the Wordsworths in 1798, but did not seek to publish it. Coleridge's friend, the author [[Mary Robinson (poet)|Mary Robinson]] wrote a response to the poem titled, "To the Poet Coleridge," which was first published in the October, 17, 1800 edition of ''[[The Morning Post]]'',<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/TWC24042945?journalCode=twc| title=From "Mingled Measure" to "Eestatic Measures": Mary Robinson's Poetic Reading of "Kubla Khan"| date=1995|last=Robinson|first=Daniel| journal=[[University of Chicago Press]]| volume=26| pages=4–7| doi=10.1086/TWC24042945}}</ref> and was later included in her ''Poetical Works'' compilation in 1806.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Robinson, Mary|url=https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksinc01robiuoft/page/226/mode/2up|title=Poetical works; including many pieces never before published |date=1806|page=226}}</ref> In 1808 an anonymous contributor to the ''Monthly Repertory of English Literature'' quoted two lines from it in a book review.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=vfBIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1 Monthly Repertory of English Literature, Arts, Sciences, etc. Vol. 4 No. 13 (April 1808), p1. ]</ref>

The poem was set aside until 1815 when Coleridge compiled manuscripts of his poems for a collection titled ''Sibylline Leaves''.<ref>Holmes 1998 p. 387</ref> It did not feature in that volume, but Coleridge did read the poem to [[Lord Byron]] on 10 April 1816.{{NoteTag|[[Leigh Hunt]], the poet and essayist, witnessed the event and wrote, "He recited his 'Kubla Khan' one morning to Lord Byron, in his Lordship's house in Piccadilly, when I happened to be in another room. I remember the other's coming away from him, highly struck with his poem, and saying how wonderfully he talked. This was the impression of everyone who heard him."<ref>Holmes 1998 qtd. p. 426</ref>}}

Byron persuaded Coleridge to publish the poem, and on 12 April 1816, a contract was drawn up with the publisher [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] for £80.<ref>Holmes 1998 p. 426</ref> The Preface of "Kubla Khan" explained that it was printed "at the request of a poet of great and deserved celebrity, and as far as the author's own opinions are concerned, rather as a psychological curiosity, than on the ground of any supposed ''poetic'' merits."<ref>Sisman 2006 qtd. p. 417</ref> Coleridge's wife discouraged the publication,{{NoteTag|She wrote to [[Thomas Poole (tanner)|Thomas Poole]], "Oh! when will he ever give his friends anything but pain? he has been so unwise as to publish his fragments of 'Christabel' & 'Kubla-Khan'...we were all sadly vexed when we read the advertisement of these things."<ref>Holmes 1998 qtd. p. 431</ref>}} and [[Charles Lamb]], a poet and friend of Coleridge, expressed mixed feelings, worrying that the printed version of the poem couldn't capture the power of the recited version.{{NoteTag|Lamb wrote to Wordsworth: "Coleridge is printing Xtabel by Lord Byron's recommendation to Murray, with what he calls a vision of Kubla Khan – which said vision he repeats so enchantingly that it irradiates & brings Heaven & Elysian bowers into my parlour while he sings or says it; but there is an observation: 'never tell thy dreams,' and I am almost afraid that 'Kubla Khan' is an owl that won't bear daylight. I fear lest it should be discovered by the lantern of typography and clear reducing to letters, no better than nonsense or no sense."<ref> Holmes 1998 qtd. p. 429; Doughty 1981 qtd. p. 433.</ref>}}

"Kubla Khan" was published with [[Christabel (poem)|''Christabel'']] and "The Pains of Sleep" on 25 May 1816.<ref>Holmes 1998 p. 434</ref> Coleridge included the subtitle "A Fragment" to defend against criticism of the poem's incomplete nature.<ref>Ashton 1997 pp. 112–113</ref> The original published version of the work was separated into 2 stanzas, with the first ending at line 30.<ref>Yarlott 1967 p. 145</ref> The poem was printed four times in Coleridge's life, with the final printing in his ''Poetical Works'' of 1834.<ref>Mays 2001 p. 511</ref> In the final work, Coleridge added the expanded subtitle "Or, A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment". Printed with "Kubla Khan" was a preface that stated a dream provided Coleridge the lines.<ref name="Sisman p. 417">Sisman 2006 p. 417</ref> In some later anthologies of Coleridge's poetry, the preface is dropped along with the subtitle denoting its fragmentary and dream nature. Sometimes, the preface is included in modern editions but lacks both the first and final paragraphs.<ref>Perkins 2010 pp. 39–40</ref>