Kubla Khan By Samuel Taylor Colerdige. Modest Mussorgsky- Khovanshtchina, Intermezzo, Act 4 - Benedict Cumberbatch

[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.