Friday 19 October 2012

Poems I love (6)

I can't remember who is was that first introduced me to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan". It is another beautiful lyric poem which paints a picture and tells a story. I just love the beginning which already puts you into Xanadu.

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.

Even though not enormously long I still can only remember the beginning. Perhaps my mind is not suited to remembering poems?!

...down to a sunless sea
The poem (and Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner") figure as plot devices in "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams; which gives me additional fondness for it.