Xanadu

Kubla Khan  by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure -drome 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 girded 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 was 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 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 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 the miracle of rare device

  A sunny pleasure-dome within 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 the 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.

And so I will say goodbye and wish you all the Seasons Greetings, Merry Christmas one and all.....My thanks to all the team that keep ABCW running particularly Denise Roger Leslie and all Santa's little helpers....

Best wishes,

Di.

ABCW team.