I first read this poem (or the first stanza, anyway) in an Uncle Scrooge comic book. The story was called "Return to Xanadu" (by the amazing Don Rosa) and Huey, Dewey, and Louie flipped open the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook (that ever handy reincarnation of the lost Library of Alexandria) and promptly recited "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/ A stately pleasure dome decree...” Those words, and the rest of Coleridge's poem, have stuck with me ever since. Upon reading the entire poem in 11th grade English, I found that I could recite most of the first half from memory.

And why did I feel the need to node this? Because you really can learn from comic books, kids... and because you should recite those first lines to yourself. Hear the lyrical tilt to them? This is the joy of poetry. The words stick inside your brain and reverberate. They dance around and refuse to leave, even if you ask politely, and years later they will pop up, fanciful and beautiful as they always were, to remind you of your own Xanadu.