In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

[ET Awful]

A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise

[supernova]

1. Very apt.

Thank you ET.

[ET Awful]

2. Thank Coleridge :) n/t

[Chichiri]

3. "To seek the sacred river Alph...

To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honeydew
And drink the milk of Paradise...."

I had heard the whispered tales
Of Immortality
The deepest mystery
From an ancient book. I took a clue

I scaled the frozen mountain tops
of eastern lands unknown
Time and man alone
Searching for the lost Xanadu

Xanadu

To stand within the pleasure dome
Decreed by Kubla Kahn
To taste anew the fruits of life
The last immortal man
To find the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of Ice
Oh I will dine on honeydew
And drink the milk of paradise

A thousand years have come and gone
But time has passed me by
Stars stopped in the sky
Frozen in an everlasting view

Waiting for the world to end
Weary of the night
praying for the light
Prison of the lost Xanadu

Xanadu

Held within the pleasure dome
Decreed by Kubla Kahn.
To taste my bitter triumpth
As a mad immortal man.
Never more shall I return
Escape these caves of ice
For I have dined on honeydew
And drunk the milk of paradise

[ET Awful]

5. hehehe, I was just about to add that as a follow-up :) n/t

[CitrusLib]

4. Holy shit, I can't believe you posted this!!!!

I was just thinking about this poem the other day! I had to memorize it and write a paper on it for my English 101 class in college. It was Fall quarter my Freshman year and I came down with a nasty case of strep throat right before I started writing the paper. A guy in my dorm would wake me up every couple of hours so I could write and he even brought me chicken soup (though I couldn't swallow it). I had such a high fever, to this day, I have only the vaguest recollection of writing the damn thing and no earthly idea what I actually wrote. I know I got an A on it, but I think the prof must have given me a sympathy curve. What a blast from the past.

[ET Awful]

12. I actually did a dramatic reading of this for a theater class in

high school :)

[CitrusLib]

18. Man, that was a helluva piece to pull off in High School.

I stuck with Spoon River Anthology. B-)

[ET Awful]

19. I didn't say I did it WELL

:evilgrin:

[Drifter]

6. Great Song ...

I think this is the song that turned me into a Rush-Head in HS. No wait ... maybe it was Cygnus X-1. Either way. Great tune.

Cheers
Drifter

[ET Awful]

8. Well, I posted a poem, not a song. . . the song came about 170 years later

and begins:

To seek the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honey dew
And drink the milk of Paradise...

[Chichiri]

11. They were on the same album, "A Farewell To Kings"

So it could have been both. :shrug:

[Cocoa]

15. great movie

turned me into an Olivia Newton-John fan.

[Horushawk]

7. Who wrote this?

And my I send out -- with proper credit?

[ET Awful]

10. Samuel Taylor Coleridge . . . in 1797 or so :) n/t

[GOPisEvil]

9. Ahhhh....good ol' S. T. Coleridge.

My favorite drug-addicted poet. :)

[gmoney]

13. "Ozymandias" seems apt today, too...

Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792-1822

[BrklynLiberal]

14. Guess great minds travel the same track....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x3594522

[gmoney]

17. Honestly, I've always somewhat confused the two...

But I guess if BiBaby's mind and mine are one at least ONE similar track, there's hope...

It also is a good argument for "we're all gonna die soon enough anyway, so let's wrassle!"

[RPM]

16. dammit - i need a pleasure dome

do they have those at the Home Despot?

[El Fuego]

20. I memorized that in college, for no reason other than I loved it.

[no name no slogan]

21. Ah, good ol' opium

where would we be without it :P

[terrya]

22. Wasn't Coleridge "under the influence" when he composed that?

[redqueen]

23. .

I love that poem.