This poem was not inspired by a muse in the classical sense of the term. In a note explaining the poem, Coleridge wrote that the idea for "Kubla Khan" came to him in a drug-induced dream-vision. He was very ill and was taking an "anodyne," or medicine, prescribed by his doctor. This medicine made him very drowsy, and he fell asleep while reading this sentence from Purchas's Pilgrimage, "Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall.'' When he awakened, he quickly wrote down everything he could remember of the dream. However, he was interrupted by business, and when he was able to return to the poem, he couldn't remember any more.

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