A damsel with a dulcimer

When we talked the other day in class about the power of music and the connections it shares with poetry, it tickled some part of my brain from another Sexson class. As Rio so masterfully demonstrated a few weeks ago, last semester in Oral Traditions we were all tasked with giving over a section of our brain the memorization of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan; in which there is a section that speaks to this idea of the power of music. The verse in question is:

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinan maid.
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song
To such a 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!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle around him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed
and drunk thee milk off paradise.

Here we see the same transformative powers of music we were discussing in class, that Kubla could only achieve this fantastical dream of creating this other worldly palace with the aid of her music so beautifully powerful. All of which is presented to us in the most gorgeous opium induced verse of all time.