Episode Details

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan after waking from an opium dream and was interrupted by a visitor before he could finish it. The fragment became one of the most famous poems in the English language. His entire career followed a similar pattern — extraordinary beginnings abandoned midstream.

This episode covers Coleridge from his friendship with Wordsworth through the composition of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, his devastating opium addiction, and his late-life reinvention as a philosopher and lecturer.

• He wrote Kubla Khan after an opium-induced dream and never completed it
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner remains one of the most influential poems in English
• His opium addiction destroyed his health, his marriage, and his friendship with Wordsworth
• He coined dozens of words still used today, including the word "selfless"