Kubla Khan "Or What Happened After the Person From Porlock Interrupted Coleridge's Thought Process.

by Andrew Mayler

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 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 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 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, T

o 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....

"Could you spare a cup of sugar?" exclaimed a voice form behind the thought process of our dear author.

"What!!!" yelled Coleridge angrily as he puffed on his opium.

"Could you spare a cup of sugar dear Coleridge? You see, it's my wife's birthday and I haven't a cup of sugar in the house I was ju-..." continued the Person from Porlock but we rudely by Coleridge.

"I'm busy writing a masterpiece that children in rich private schools sometime in the future will read and be in awe at my writing and you need sugar for a cake!!!" exclaimed Coleridge.

"Well, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you.


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