Merlin Ii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRFS IOTRUVWXRP OFOYROZRRA2B2C2A2D2F A2A2PA2PMRE2OA2RA2A2 ZPA2 OPRPROIIPRRRF2POPA2A 2MYIC2ORA2PPZA2G2H2B 2PMMIR OMA2RFFRA2MRA2RMIA2M MPPA2OIRRA2RA2FRMMA2 A2 FI2A2PJ2RORA2MIMF2PR JMIRMA2OFOA2POA2K2A2 A2MA2IA2PMA2RZMRZR FA2OPA2OL2 IMRIM2OMA2ZA2PR N2MOPRRA2N2RRROA2A2F A2 A2ORMA2H2O2OOMA2 FFO OA2A2MA2A2M PA2MOA2RPA2M

Sir Lamorak the man of oak and ironA
Had with him now as a care laden guestB
Sir Bedivere a man whom Arthur lovedC
As he had loved no man save LancelotD
Like one whose late flown shaft of argumentE
Had glanced and fallen afield innocuouslyF
He turned upon his host a sudden eyeG
That met from Lamorak's an even shaftH
Of native and unused authorityI
And each man held the other till at lengthJ
Each turned away shutting his heavy jawsK
Again together prisoning thus two tonguesL
That might forget and might not be forgivenM
Then Bedivere to find a plain way outN
Said Lamorak let us drink to some one hereO
And end this dryness Who shall it be the KingP
The Queen or Lancelot Merlin Lamorak growledQ
And then there were more wrinkles round his eyesR
Than Bedivere had said were possibleF
There's no refusal in me now for thatS
The guest replied so Merlin' let it beI
We've not yet seen him but if he be hereO
And even if he should not be here say Merlin 'T
They drank to the unseen from two new tankardsR
And fell straightway to sighing for the pastU
And what was yet before them Silence laidV
A cogent finger on the lips of eachW
Impatient veteran whose hard hands lay clenchedX
And restless on his midriff until wordsR
Were stronger than strong LamorakP
-
BedivereO
Began the solid host you may as wellF
Say now as at another time hereafterO
That all your certainties have bruises on 'emY
And all your pestilent asseverationsR
Will never make a man a salamanderO
Who's born as we are told so fire won't bite himZ
Or a slippery queen a nun who counts and burnsR
Herself to nothing with her beads and candlesR
There's nature and what's in us to be siftedA2
Before we know ourselves or any manB2
Or woman that God suffers to be bornC2
That's how I speak and while you strain your mazardA2
Like Father Jove big with a new MinervaD2
We'll say to pass the time that I speak wellF
God's fish The King had eyes and LancelotA2
Won't ride home to his mother for she's deadA2
The story is that Merlin warned the KingP
Of what's come now to pass and I believe itA2
And Arthur he being Arthur and a kingP
Has made a more pernicious mess than oneM
We're told for being so great and amorousR
It's that unwholesome and inclement cubE2
Young Modred I'd see first in hell beforeO
I'd hang too high the Queen or LancelotA2
The King if one may say it set the paceR
And we've two strapping bastards here to prove itA2
Young Borre he's well enough but as for ModredA2
I squirm as often as I look at himZ
And there again did Merlin warn the KingP
The story goes abroad and I believe itA2
-
Sir Bedivere as one who caught no moreO
Than what he would of Lamorak's outpouringP
Inclined his grizzled head and closed his eyesR
Before he sighed and rubbed his beard and spokeP
For all I know to make it otherwiseR
The Queen may be a nun some day or otherO
I'd pray to God for such a thing to beI
If prayer for that were not a mockeryI
We're late now for much praying LamorakP
When you and I can feel upon our facesR
A wind that has been blowing over ruinsR
That we had said were castles and high towersR
Till Merlin or the spirit of him cameF2
As the dead come in dreams I saw the KingP
This morning and I saw his face ThereforeO
I tell you if a state shall have a kingP
The king must have the state and be the stateA2
Or then shall we have neither king nor stateA2
But bones and ashes and high towers all fallenM
And we shall have where late there was a kingdomY
A dusty wreck of what was once a gloryI
A wilderness whereon to crouch and mournC2
And moralize or else to build once moreO
For something better or for something worseR
Therefore again I say that LancelotA2
Has wrought a potent wrong upon the KingP
And all who serve and recognize the KingP
And all who follow him and all who love himZ
Whatever the stormy faults he may have hadA2
To look on him today is to forget themG2
And if it be too late for sorrow nowH2
To save him for it was a broken manB2
I saw this morning and a broken kingP
The God who sets a day for desolationM
Will not forsake him in AvilionM
Or whatsoever shadowy land there beI
Where peace awaits him on its healing shoresR
-
Sir Lamorak shifting in his oaken chairO
Growled like a dog and shook himself like oneM
For the stone chested helmet cracking knightA2
That you are known to be from LyonnesseR
To northward Bedivere you fol de rolF
When days are rancid and you fiddle faddleF
More like a woman than a man with handsR
Fit for the smiting of a crazy giantA2
With armor an inch thick as we all knowM
You are when you're not sermonizing at usR
As for the King I say the King no doubtA2
Is angry sorry and all sorts of thingsR
For Lancelot and for his easy QueenM
Whom he took knowing she'd thrown sparks alreadyI
On that same piece of tinder LancelotA2
Who fetched her with him from LeodogranM
Because the King God save poor human reasonM
Would prove to Merlin who knew everythingP
Worth knowing in those days that he was wrongP
I'll drink now and be quiet but by GodA2
I'll have to tell you Brother BedivereO
Once more to make you listen properlyI
That crowns and orders and high palacesR
And all the manifold ingredientsR
Of this good solid kingdom where we sitA2
And spit now at each other with our eyesR
Will not go rolling down to hell just yetA2
Because a pretty woman is a foolF
And here's Kay coming with his fiddle faceR
As long now as two fiddles Sit ye downM
Sir Man and tell us everything you knowM
Of Merlin or his ghost without a beardA2
What mostly is itA2
-
Sir Kay the seneschalF
Sat wearily while he gazed upon the twoI2
To you it mostly is if I err notA2
That what you hear of Merlin's coming backP
Is nothing more or less than heavy truthJ2
But ask me nothing of the Queen I sayR
For I know nothing All I know of herO
Is what her eyes have told the silencesR
That now attend her and that her estateA2
Is one for less complacent execrationM
Than quips and innuendoes of the cityI
Would augur for her sin if there be sinM
Or for her name if now she have a nameF2
And where I say is this to lead the KingP
And after him the kingdom and ourselvesR
Here be we three men of a certain strengthJ
And some confessed intelligence who knowM
That Merlin has come out of BrittanyI
Out of his grave as he would say it for usR
Because the King has now a desperationM
More strong upon him than a woman's netA2
Was over Merlin for now Merlin's hereO
And two of us who knew him know how wellF
His wisdom if he have it any longerO
Will by this hour have sounded and appraisedA2
The grief and wrath and anguish of the KingP
Requiring mercy and inspiring fearO
Lest he forego the vigil now most urgentA2
And leave unwatched a cranny where some wormK2
Or serpent may come in to speculateA2
-
I know your worm and his worm's name is ModredA2
Albeit the streets are not yet saying soM
Said Lamorak as he lowered his wrath and laughedA2
A sort of poisonous apologyI
To Kay And in the meantime I'll be gyvedA2
Here's Bedivere a wailing for the KingP
And you Kay with a moist eye for the QueenM
I think I'll blow a horn for LancelotA2
For by my soul a man's in sorry caseR
When Guineveres are out with eyes to scorch himZ
I'm not so ancient or so frozen certainM
That I'd ride horses down to skeletonsR
If she were after me Has Merlin seen himZ
This Lancelot this Queen fed friend of oursR
-
Kay answered sighing with a lonely scowlF
The picture that I conjure leaves him outA2
The King and Merlin are this hour togetherO
And I can say no more for I know nothingP
But how the King persuaded or beguiledA2
The stricken wizard from across the waterO
Outriddles my poor wits It's all too strangeL2
-
It's all too strange and half the world's half crazyI
Roared Lamorak forgetting once againM
The devastating carriage of his voiceR
Is the King sick he said more quietlyI
Is he to let one damned scratch be enoughM2
To paralyze the force that heretoforeO
Would operate a way through hell and ironM
And iron already slimy with his bloodA2
Is the King blind with Modred watching himZ
Does he forget the crown for LancelotA2
Does he forget that every woman mewingP
Shall some day be a handful of small ashesR
-
You speak as one for whom the god of LoveN2
Has yet a mighty trap in preparationM
We know you Lamorak said BedivereO
We know you for a short man LamorakP
In deeds if not in inches or in wordsR
But there are fens and heights and distancesR
That your capricious ranging has not yetA2
Essayed in this weird region of man's loveN2
Forgive me Lamorak but your words are wordsR
Your deeds are what they are and ages henceR
Will men remember your illustriousnessR
If there be gratitude in historyO
For me I see the shadow of the endA2
Wherein to serve King Arthur to the endA2
And if God have it so to see the GrailF
Before I dieA2
-
But Lamorak shook his headA2
See what you will or what you may For meO
I see no other than a stinking messR
With Modred stirring it and AgravaineM
Spattering Camelot with as much of itA2
As he can throw The Devil got somehowH2
Into God's workshop once upon a timeO2
And out of the red clay that he found thereO
He made a shape like Modred and anotherO
As like as eyes are to this AgravaineM
I never made 'em ' said the good Lord GodA2
But let 'em go and see what comes of 'em '-
And that's what we're to do As for the GrailF
I've never worried it and so the GrailF
Has never worried meO
-
Kay sighed I seeO
With Bedivere the coming of the endA2
He murmured for the King I saw todayA2
Was not nor shall he ever be againM
The King we knew I say the King is deadA2
The man is living but the King is deadA2
The wheel is brokenM
-
Faugh said LamorakP
There are no dead kings yet in CamelotA2
But there is Modred who is hatching ruinM
And when it hatches I may not be hereO
There's Gawaine too and he does not forgetA2
My father who killed his King Arthur's houseR
Has more divisions in it than I likeP
In houses and if Modred's aim be goodA2
For backs like mine I'm not long for the sceneM

Edwin Arlington Robinson



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