X is for Xanadu #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

Oh no, the dreaded 'X' post! I had to rack my brains and do a bit of research to think of a colour for this one, but I finally discovered the colour Xanadu, a greenish gray that takes it's name from the philodendron plant, whose leaves are the same colour. The plant was in turn named after the ancient Chinese city of the same name.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and see the post I hashed together for this extremely difficult colour!

Symbolism

Xanadu symbolises nature and peacefulness, as well as conformity, dependability and the mundane. 

Complementary colour: rose pink

Plants and flowers: Too many to list!

Animals: Snakes, alligators, crocodiles, frogs, lizards

Foods: Many vegetables (eg. Zucchini, cabbage, spinach, artichoke, olives etc.)

Kubla Khan

Today I've decided to share one of my favourite poems, 'Kubla Khan' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, as it actually makes reference to the capital city of Xanadu, which vaguely relates to my theme. It was the best I could come up with I'm afraid!

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
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.


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!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!


A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian 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 round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Doesn't that roll off your tongue so beautifully? Almost a sensuous experience. No? Just me?

A Blast from the Past

There. Are. No. Words. 

Have you heard of the colour Xanadu? Can you think of any other colours beginning with X, or alternatively, what's your favourite word that starts with X?