Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A recital of extracts from the following poem: "Kubla Khan, or a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment." a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The title refers to the Mongol and Chinese emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty. The poem was written in 1797, first published in 1816. Xanadu refers to Shangdu, the summer palace of Kublai Khan.

The full text of the poem is below, with the extracts included in the video enclosed in quotation marks "":

"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 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.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Poetry
• Coleridge
• Kubla
• Khan
• Xanadu
• recital

[Israph3l]

XA NA DUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

[JAJTJAJT]

Cabot Tower Brandon Hill Bristol England

[calvinlld]

Where was this filmed?

[yvettesthebomb]

Jumps though, dislike (for want of an arrow pointing down) >>>>>>>>>>>>>

[HeathenGeek]

@MrWillt1988 It wasn't a tradesmen, I seem to remember it was Dirk Gently. : )

[negtype13]

No...I don't mean the factual/historic part of the poem. I know ALL of that. BELIEVE me.

I'm talking about the video here. It fragments the poem and jumps parts.

[MrWillt1988]

It was fragmented because, Coleridge first envisioned the poem whilst on an opium trip, and planned a lengthy epic in the tradition of Milton's Paradise Lost. However, as he was about to write it down, a tradesmen knocked on his door for directions, and when he sat back down to write he could only remember a 'fragment' of what he had envisioned.

[MolliROX]

I have to learn this poem for school. It's not going so well. I can't seem to remember the line after 'Where walls and towers were girdled round'

[negtype13]

i don't know why it was fragmented/shortened but, this poem kicks ass!!!

[Danetto]

lol

i bet u mixed up the words quite a bit