Coleridge's Kubla Khan
Creative artists and poets have been particularly prone to find their inspirations in intense hypnagogic reverie-like mental states (though scientists are no exceptions either). The genesis of Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan lay in such a waking dream.
One summer evening of 1797, Coleridge was staying in a remote farm house. That evening, not feeling all too well, he took two grains of opium, and fell into a reverie. At the time of sleeping off, he was reading a book which contained some reference of Kubla Khan. While in this state, he found images emerging in his mind, along with their poetic descriptions. When, after almost three hours, he came to his senses, all he had to do was to pick up his pen and write down the verses, which had been revealed to him.
Unfortunately, his writing was interrupted by a visitor when he had only written the first two hundred lines. When he returned to his work again, he found that the memory of the dream had faded. He could not recall the vision any more, and had to compose the rest of the poem consciously.
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