101 Poems, Number 88

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

88: “Kubla Khan,” 1797 (pub. in 1816), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

I read this poem in college, Yo,

And realized I didn’t know

A lot of things. (Yes, kinda slow.)

Some years then passed—oh, yes, a lot—

And for a reason I have not

A clue about, I kind of thought

I’d memorize these many lines—

I’d try it, see, like foreign wines—

And hoped I’d pay no fatal fines

For doing so. Success! Inside

My head those magic words abide,

And I’m, I guess, so mystified

That I would even try to try

To learn it. And I can’t say why

I did. Perhaps to satisfy

Some urge from very long ago

When I was no real dynamo—

Not butter, just some oleo!

Link to poem.