"Xanadu"

— by Rush

 

This is based on an unfinished poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who started writing it while under the influence of drugs. Once the effects of the drugs wore off, he was unable to complete it.

This song is one of the many journies travelled in the mind frame known as Rush …

 

 

 

"To seek the sacred river Alph
to walk the caves of ice.
To break my fast on honeydew
and drink the milk of Paradise … "

I had heard the whispered tales
Of Immortality
The deepest mystery
From an ancient book. I took a clue.

I scaled the frozen mountain tops
of eastern lands unknown.
Time and man alone
Searching for the lost — Xanadu.

Xanadu

To stand within the pleasure dome
decreed by Kubla Kahn
To taste anew the fruits of life.
The last immortal man.
To find the sacred river Alph,
To walk the caves of Ice
Oh I will dine on honeydew,
And drink the milk of paradise.

A thousand years have come and gone
But time has passed me by.
Stars stopped in the sky!
frozen in an everlasting view.

Waiting for the world to end,
Weary of the night
praying for the light
Prison of the lost — Xanadu

Xanadu

Held within the pleasure dome
decreed by Kublai Kahn.
To taste my bitter triumpth
as a mad immortal man.
Never more shall I return
Escape these caves of ice

For I have dined on honeydew
and drunk the milk of paradise
Oh withered Paradise!