Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-23
THE DAILY RECORD-UNION.
KUBLa KHAN.

In the summer Of the year 1897 the author OF the
following fragment, then in i'll health, had retired
to lonely farm house between Porlock and Linton
on the kxnoor confines Of Somerset and Devon
shire In consequence of slight lndisposition, an
anodyne had beer prescribed, from the effect of
which he fell asleep in his chair at the moment that
he was reading the following sentence, words OF
the same substance, in Purchas' Pilgrimage 1"
:" Here the Khan kubla commanded a palace to be
built, and a stately garden thereto. And thus ten
miles OF fertile ground were incosed with q wall I"
The author cont1ued for about three hours in pro-
found sleep, at least OF the external Senses during
which time he has the most vivid confidence that he
could not have composed less than from two to
three hundred lines, II that indeed be called
composition, IN which all the images rose up before
him things with parallel production of the cor
respondent expressions, without any sensation or
Consciousness OF Effort. On awaking he appeared to
himself 20 have distinct recollection of the whole,
ana taking his pen, ink and paper, instantly wrote
down the lines THAI here preserved. At this
moment re unfortunately called out by per
son on business from Porlock, and detained by him
above hour, and on his return to his room found,
to his no small surprise end modification, that
though he still retained some vague and dim recol-
lection Of the general purport of the vision yet with
the exception Of some eight or ten scattered lines
and images, all the rest had passed away like the
images the surface OF stream into which stone
had been cast but, alas without the after restora.
ton Of the latter.
In Xansdu did Kubla Khan
stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through eaYerns measureess to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice ave miles of fertile ground
With walls ana towers were girded round
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rils,
Where blosson'd many an incense. bearing trees
And here were forests ancient as the hills
Enrolling sunny spots OF greenery.
But oh chat deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart cedsrn cover
savage place! as holy and enchanted
AS e'er ben cath waning haunted
BY woman waiting for her demon lover
And from this chas with ceaseles5 turmoil seething
As II this earth in fast thick pants breathing,
mighty fountain monently forced;
Amid whose swift half iutermitted burst
hugh fragments vaulted like rebonndins hail,
Or chatiy grain beneath the thresher's fail
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
1t flung up mOmenty the sacred river.
Five miles mesDdering with may motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reach'd the cayerns measureless to man,
And sank in tumut to 4 liteless ocean:
And mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophe5Ying 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.
1t was miracle Of rare device,
a sunny pleaSuredome with caves of ice
damsel with dulcimer
In vision once | saw
It Sbyssiniau maid
And on her dulcmer she play d,
Singing of Mourt Abora.
Could revive within me
Her symphony and song,
TO such deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long
| would build that dome in ain
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 drank the milk of Paradise
Is. F. Coleridge.