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Kublai
Khan (Xanadu) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
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 blossom'd many an
incense-bearing tree.
And here were forests as
ancient as the hills,
enfolding sunny spots of
greenery.
But O! That deep romantic
chasm which slanted,
down the green hill athwart
a cedarn cover.
A savage place! As holy
and enchanted
as a'er beneath a waning
moon was haunted
by woman wailing for her
demon lover.
In from that 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 reach'd the caverns
measureless to man,
and sank in tumult to a
lifeless ocean.
And 'mid this tumult Kublai
heard from afar
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!
Thy 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.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
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