MERLIN : A Poem

MERLIN A Poem

BY
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON


MERLIN

I
"Gawaine, Gawaine, what look ye for to see,

So far beyond the faint edge of the world ?

D'ye look to see the lady Vivian,

Pursued by divers ominous vile demons

That have another king more fierce than ours ?

Or think ye that if ye look far enough

And hard enough into the feathery west

Ye'll have a glimmer of the Grail itself ?

And if ye look for neither Grail nor lady,

What look ye for to see, Gawaine, Gawaine ?"

So Dagonet, whom Arthur made a knight

Because he loved him as he laughed at him,

Intoned his idle presence on a day

To Gawaine, who had thought himself alone,

Had there been in him thought of anything

Save what was murmured now in Camelot

Of Merlin's hushed and all but unconfirmed

Appearance out of Brittany. It was heard

At first there was a ghost in Arthur's palace,

But soon among the scullions and anon

Among the knights a firmer credit held

All tongues from uttering what all glances told —

Though not for long. Gawaine, this afternoon,

Fearing he might say more to Lancelot

Of Merlin's rumor-laden resurrection

Than Lancelot would have an ear to cherish,

Had sauntered off with his imagination

To Merlin's Rock, where now there was no Merlin

To meditate upon a whispering town

Below him in the silence. — Once he said

To Gawaine : "You are young ; and that being so,

Behold the shining city of our dreams