[ti:] [ar:] [al:] [00:00.00]Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Benedict Cumberbatch [00:01.00]In Xanadu did Kubla Khan [00:03.09]A stately pleasure-dome decree : [00:05.52]Where Alph, the sacred river, ran [00:08.13]Through caverns measureless to man [00:10.64]Down to a sunless sea. [00:13.30]So twice five miles of fertile ground [00:15.93]With walls and towers were girdled round : [00:18.60]And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, [00:22.79]Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; [00:26.30]And here were forests ancient as the hills, [00:29.55]Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. [00:32.75]But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted [00:35.68]Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover ! [00:40.04]A savage place ! as holy and enchanted [00:43.28]As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted [00:45.81]By woman wailing for her demon-lover ! [00:50.84]And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, [00:53.77]As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, [00:57.09]A mighty fountain momently was forced : [01:00.33]Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst [01:02.33]Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, [01:05.68]Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail : [01:10.15]And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever [01:13.62]It flung up momently the sacred river. [01:17.11]Five miles meandering with a mazy motion [01:21.29]Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, [01:25.64]Then reached the caverns measureless to man, [01:30.27]And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean : [01:33.37]And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far [01:36.86]Ancestral voices prophesying war ! [01:43.87]The shadow of the dome of pleasure [01:46.22]Floated midway on the waves ; [01:47.70]Where was heard the mingled measure [01:50.94]From the fountain and the caves. [01:54.03]It was a miracle of rare device, [01:57.20]A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice ! [02:02.40]A damsel with a dulcimer [02:04.58]In a vision once I saw : [02:06.94]It was an Abyssinian maid, [02:09.20]And on her dulcimer she played, [02:11.35]Singing of Mount Abora. [02:15.03]Could I revive within me [02:16.92]Her symphony and song, [02:18.28]To such a deep delight 'twould win me, [02:21.42]That with music loud and long, [02:23.58]I would build that dome in air, [02:27.90]That sunny dome ! those caves of ice ! [02:32.27]And all who heard should see them there, [02:37.05]And all should cry, Beware ! Beware ! [02:40.30]His flashing eyes, his floating hair ! [02:44.94]Weave a circle round him thrice, [02:46.99]And close your eyes with holy dread, [02:50.12]For he on honey-dew hath fed, [02:53.12]And drunk the milk of Paradise.