Xanadu
(History and Myth)
Xanadu, exotic name,
Drawing its hypnotic fame
From a Coleridge dream-shot fit,
(Stirred by Polo’s rare report
Of rich Kublai Khan’s resort),
Through a drug-induced remit.
Xanadu – or Great X’ian –
Was the place where first began
China’s Empire under Shi:
There his terracotta Horde
Still keeps guard about its Lord
In his posthumous degree.
Xanadu stood near the Wall –
Largest artefact of all
Human ingenuity –
Fifteen hundred miles in length
To intimidate the strength
Of prospective enemies.
Many centuries have blown
Since those ramparts of dressed stone,
(And that terracotta Force),
Were deployed to help police
Shi’s new Middle Kingdom’s peace
And sustain his Empire’s laws.
Polo saw these sights himself
As he traded Kublai’s wealth:
Coleridge dreamt them into myth.
Kingdoms rise and Empire’s fall,
Yet that Army and this Wall
Scowl on, fierce as Dragonsteeth.
Powerfully redolent
Of huge might, (but impotent
In the land they should defend),
Still they stand, mute symbols now
Of ambitious dreams, and how
History and Myth contend.
Shi’s hid Funerary Hall
One day will reveal to all
Wonders to astound the view:
History and Myth shall then
Be compatible again
There, at famous Xanadu.
