From: cs911029@ariel.yorku.ca (THOMAS J DUCK)
Subject: Peart, Coleridge,  and Kubla Khan
Followup-To: Nothing
Summary: Interpretations of Kubla Khan,  by S.T. Coleridge
Keywords: Xanadu,  Coleridge,  Kubla Khan
Organization: York University, Toronto, Canada
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 16:32:09 GMT

     Years ago (when I was a wee little Rush fan),  a friend of mine
told me that the epic song Xanadu was based on a poem.  I didn't bother
with this until just a few years ago,  when I found a reference to it
in a book -- Who Has Seen the Wind (Ugh!).  Later,  I approached an
English teacher to see if he could direct me to its source.  

     The following poem is called "Kubla Khan",  and is by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge.  The song Xanadu is at least loosely based on this poem.
However,  I have a few problems with it!  Neil's interpretation of
Kubla Khan has to do with immortality.  But I have talked to a number of
English majors in University who seem to derive something much different
from it.  Myself,  I get even another interpretation (the last stanza
is downright sinister!).

     Whatever,  I find this poem at the very least beautiful and profound.
I provide it here for your own enjoyment!

     Anyone care to shed their own interpretation?  I would be most
interested to hear!  BTW,  it probably took 100 readings before I could
make any reasonable sense of this work,  but the result is most
rewarding!

Cheers,
Thomas J. Duck
cs911029@ariel.yorku.ca

-----*****-----

                  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 here were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
     Where blossomed many an incence-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 a woman wailing for her demon-lover!
     And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
     As if the 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 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 I once 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 in holy dread,          
       For he on honeydew hath fed,                  
       And drunk the milk of Paradise.           
      
                               - Samuel Taylor Coleridge [1772-1834]     
                                                 
 
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