GOPisEvil - Coleridge is your favorite too?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

You, sir, fucking ROCK!!!

:yourock:

I love Kubla Kahn

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,
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.

[vi5]

1. A semi-shameful confession....

I have a Bachelors Degree and a Masters Degree in Literature, but the two biggest things in turning me on to literature and poetry as a kid were Rush writing about Xanadu and Kublai Kahn, and Iron Maiden writing about the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. More than anything else, those two things made me check out poetry and lit and really turned me on to the stuff.

[matcom]

2. Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner Did It For Me Too

damn powerful stuff

:yourock:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. Iron Maiden opened my eyes as cheesey as it sounds

I'm with ya!

Not to mention HP Lovecraft

[vi5]

4. O.K. good. I'm not the only one with this deep, dark, secret...

I can only imagine the gasps of horror if I had confessed this at my Masters Thesis seminars or meetings.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I recall in high school

I wrote a shortened version of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

It was a ratty old sailer
who stopped me on the street.
He smelled fresh off a whaler
and foul with rancid meat.

He had a tale to tell
As I could plainly see
But I hustled off pell-mell
Before he could stink up me.


Ok, OK, I was, like, 15, ya know?

[ThatPoetGuy]

6. Heee!

I know that by heart.