Xanadu

'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 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 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 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 honeydew
And drunk the milk of Paradise

I've always loved this song, with it's disjointed opening sounds, then the strengthening sound, and then the lyrics - disturbing lyrics. It is not unlike looking for the fountain of youth... at what point do you realise or admit to yourself that this was not quite what you had had in mind... And as with any untamed, undiscovered thing, it is not quite what you were thinking it would be. This is a very good example of this sort of trap...

I think writing this song was a stroke of genius. It is something to think about. People are always looking for the impossible. This song displays that failing in the human race perfectly. Anything that is so out of our realm of having is something that, if you do find it, has an incredibly high price to pay. In this case, a man looking for the Pleasure Dome, Kubla Khan's fabled city. He is not seeking it as Heimmel-what's-his-head was looking for Troy, a historical place that was then considered to be a tale, but rather searching for immortality. I would not want immortality. I would like to not age, and just crap out at a good healthy, normal age like 80, but still feeling and looking young and vital, not elderly and tired or sick. That sounds nice, doesn't it? Immortality, though... not hard to see the price one would have pay for that. The inability to die. To see time turn over and again, and to not be able to go. Man is meant to die at the conclusion of his life. Be it 2 days or 200 years, man is meant to die.

Even if I could have the fantasy of living my span as someone young and vital and not age visibly, what the price be? For you cannot have the impossible without that price. You cannot bargain these things. The cost has to be paid in full. So. Would I be like Dorian Gray, with a painting that would age, and not just age, but age in a hideous and disgusting fashion? Or would the price be that I would not learn and grow as I have with age? I would not like that - to be stuck at the knowledge level I was at age 33 or 34. I am only 4 to 5 years beyond that and I have learned a lot in that time.

For I have dined on honeydew
And drunk the milk of Paradise