Wednesday, March 27, 2013

"In Xanadu..." (IV) - Chasm





In Xanadu.." - A series inspired by Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 22'' X 15''. Watercolors and ink on Bockingford.


"But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!











































Saturday, March 23, 2013

"In Xanadu..." (I) - Secret Garden



In Xanadu.." - A series inspired by Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 22'' X 15''. Watercolors and ink on Bockingford.


"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."