Xanadu

I rediscovered Xanadu by Rush today. I've always liked the song, but I've never listened thoroughly through it. And that's exactly what I did while walking home from school today. The song pictures Xanadu as the lost paradise, and seems to be based on the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Xanadu was really the summer capital of the mongol emperor Kublai Khan, and was made known through Marco Polo's stories. Somwhere along the way it became a fabled paradise, which the narrator in this Rush song seeks:

"To seek the sacred river Alph,
to walk the caves of ice,
to break my fast on honey dew
and drink the milk of paradise."

The song goes on with:

"I had heard the whispered tales
of immortality - The deepest mystery
from an ancient book, I took a clue."

Here I suppose it's suggested that Xanadu offers immortality, or perhaps it is in fact a metaphor for immortality. Your adventurous blogger will go on with the idea that Xanadu is a paradise that grants its inhabitants immortality. So the narrator takes the clue, and goes on to find Xanadu:

"I scaled the frozen mountain tops
of eastern lands unknown,
time and man alone,
searching for the lost Xanadu"

He fables on about the wonderful Xanadu he read about, and how badly he wishes to find it.

"To stand within the pleasure dome
decreed by kubla khan.
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 honey dew
and drink the milk of paradise"

This is the turning point of the song, where the narrator does indeed find Xanadu and spends a thousand years there. Time there stands still, and he wishes for something to happen.

"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!

Held within the pleasure dome
Decreed by Kubla Khan.
To taste my bitter triumph
as a mad immortal man.
Nevermore shall I return,
escape these caves of ice.
For I have dined on honey dew
and drunk the milk of paradise.
More than paradise!"

Our narrator realizes that he is in fact trapped in Xanadu, cut off from the world. Having seen paradise, he can't go back. He has become insane with his eternity. His fascination became his doom, as immortality and paradise destroyed him.