>[!abstract] >The "person on business from Porlock" was an unwelcome visitor to Samuel Taylor Coleridge during his composition of the poem *Kubla Khan* in 1797. Coleridge claimed to have perceived the entire course of the poem in a dream (possibly an opium-induced haze), but was interrupted by this visitor who came "on business from Porlock" while in the process of writing it. *Kubla Khan*, only 54 lines long, was never completed. Thus "person from Porlock", "man from Porlock", or just "Porlock" are literary allusions to unwanted intruders who disrupt inspired creativity (Wikipedia, 2025). >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): [[Romantic imagination]] >- **West** (similar): [[Writer’s block]] >- **East** (different): [[Flow state]] >- **South** (downstream): [[Fragmentary works]]