# "In Xanadu Did Kubla Khan.."

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-xanadu-did-kubla-khan/153938>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 9, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-xanadu-did-kubla-khan/153938 "2003-02-09T19:52:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Toffe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@Toffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toffe)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-xanadu-did-kubla-khan/153938/21 "2003-02-10T14:04:07Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Loopus \*  
> \*\*You’re probably thinking of _Return to Xanadu_, written and drawn by Don Rosa. It was a sequal of sorts to Carl Barks’ _Tralla La_ (I think that was the title), and showed that Tralla La was, in fact, the Xanadu described by Coleridge. Most (or maybe all) of the poem was quoted in _Return to Xanadu_. \*\*

Whoops. You’re right, sorry. Have both…

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-xanadu-did-kubla-khan/153938/22 "2003-02-10T14:09:41Z")

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Just for the record “Xanadu” did exist, but the name is more commonly rendered “Shang Tu”. It’s in my edition of “The Travels of Marco Polo”, and you can find it on old maps of China. I doubt if it lives up to the rep the poem gives it. There’s probably something about it in the book **The Road to Xanadu** , which traces the things that influenced Coleridge. Finally, Dave Barry once mentioned “Shang Tu” in one of his columns, which pretty much proves (as if it needed proving) that the “transcendaentally churish” front he puts up is, indeed, a front.

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**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-xanadu-did-kubla-khan/153938/23 "2003-02-10T15:58:04Z")

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Personally, I’ve always found the person-from-Porlock story a shade too pat, given that the poem is (at least partly) _about_ the process of creation and the difficulty of recapturing inspiration once the moment of vision is gone.

> [@](#):
>
> Could I revive within me  
> Her symphony and song,  
> To such deep delight 'twould win me  
> That with music loud and long  
> I would build that dome in air –  
> That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!

It all just seems to dovetail a little too easily, I think.

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