In Xandu by durleybeachbum
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Description
This backlit Helter Skelter immediately brought to mind the opening of Coleridge's famous poem, Kubla Khan.
If you didn't have the pleasure of poetry at school this is how it starts
"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."
We are told he was on drugs when he wrote this.
A harmless outcome compared to some we have seen this week, such as the acid attack in a nightclub blinding 2 folk in one eye each and harming 14 others, and the ex naval officer killed by being run over by his own car whilst confronting burglars.
See more of this with less postwork Here
Comments (14)
Faemike55
Beautiful postwork on this and great reminder of that cool poem. It seems there's an uptick in violence.
giulband
Fascinating image !!
awjay
nice
RodS Online Now!
A very beautiful image indeed! Love this.
wysiwig
Your post work fits the poem very well. Nice work. Coleridge was one of those writers I was required to read in school (under duress). Of course, now I am grateful for the academic whip that was applied. As for his recreational pursuits, he was fortunate to live at a time when it was tolerated and could partake at home where it was reasonably safe.
Glendaw
Very beautiful pics. and beautiful poem.
Thanks for sharing.
I never studied his work in school, sounds very interesting.
XxOo
auntietk
I'm always suspicious of the "he was on drugs when he wrote this" sort of toss-off information. Maybe he was on drugs and had a vision and wrote about it later, but I've never seen anybody who was stoned on anything actually creating art WHILE they were stoned.
Love the photo and postwork ... a pleasure dome, indeed! :)
jendellas
Used to love the helter skelter. No good news this week.
bmac62
Ooooo, Like both your pics of this place. I was an English major and never read this poem...Obviously, I should turn my diploma back in!
sossy
capture also is poetry and reminds me of a tower of a wizzard 😃
kgb224
Superb capture and post work Andrea. God bless.
junge1
Love the photo and postwork! Never cared for poems and am not familiar with the poem nor the poet!
`
Adobe_One_Kenobi
I can never escape that poem as I have a liking for a Canadian prog rock band named Rush, who have an album named "A farewell to kings" there is a track on there called Xanadu, and the lines of the song echo those of the poem.
Held within the pleasure dome Decreed by Kubla Khan To taste my bitter triumph As the last immortal man
etc.....
anahata.c
I'll probably comment on you in 2 installments. You know the 'protocol'--I skip only because I can't do everything, but skipping doesn't mean I think any less of the ones I skip than those I don't---it's 'getting a sampling'. And, I've seen every upload without fail. I wish I could comment on them all when I return here, believe me...
I loved what you did with this. I loved the less postworked shot too, but with the light as it was, I can see how it called you to do this postwork. "Going with the art..." You made the areas around the big light blasts into lava flows and current fields. (Current, not curran.) Like a space ship that landed---but that's what Coleridge painted, almost, in his poem. And yeah, he was supposedly a drug taker, for inspiration, etc. (And yes, better for that than for the horrible results drugs lead to today.)
Keeping all that stark white was perfect for this intense often dark image. And full size, this thing is positively sinister, monstrous and enthralling. Terrific postwork.
(Coleridge also wrote, as you know, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and that's a wild tale too. Great imagination. He stands out, kind of, in 19th C British poetry, for that semi-psychedelic way about him. But with his disciplines, he was hardly psychedelic. He was an intensely disciplined, rigorous artist, and that's something you can't do well on drugs...)