Kubla Khan Lyrics

In Xanadu did Kooblah 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 Kooblah 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