Echo Poetry: Kubla Khan

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan Con

A stately pleasure-dome decree: Me

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Man!

Through caverns measureless to man Can 

   Down to a sunless sea. We

So twice five miles of fertile ground Pound

With walls and towers were girdled round; Hound?

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Thrills

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; Me,

And here were forests ancient as the hills, Kills

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. Machinery

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Witch chanted,

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! “Other,

A savage place! as holy and enchanted Granted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted Unwanted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover! Cover,

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, Breathing,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, Relieving,

A mighty fountain momently was forced: Endorsed

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Wurst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Tail

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail: Fail!”

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever Never

It flung up momently the sacred river. Deliver

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Emotion,

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Man!

Then reached the caverns measureless to man, Can

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean; Potion

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Jars

Ancestral voices prophesying war! Store

   The shadow of the dome of pleasure Leisure?

   Floated midway on the waves; Graves

   Where was heard the mingled measure Pleasure

   From the fountain and the caves. Graves!

It was a miracle of rare device, Ice

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! Spice

   A damsel with a dulcimer Shimmers

   In a vision once I saw: Raw!

   It was an Abyssinian maid Aid

   And on her dulcimer she played, Glade

   Singing of Mount Abora. Aura!

   Could I revive within me See,

   Her symphony and song, Wrong

   To such a deep delight ’twould win me, Bees!

That with music loud and long, Strong

I would build that dome in air, Flair

That sunny dome! those caves of ice! Device

And all who heard should see them there, There!

And all should cry, Beware! Beware! Wear

His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Mare

Weave a circle round him thrice, Ice

And close your eyes with holy dread Red!

For he on honey-dew hath fed, Feds

And drunk the milk of Paradise. Excise.