Merlin Iii Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Edwin Arlington Robinson

Merlin Iii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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King Arthur as he paced a lonely floor	A
That rolled a muffled echo as he fancied	B
All through the palace and out through the world	C
Might now have wondered hard could he have heard	D
Sir Lamorak's apathetic disregard	E
Of what Fate's knocking made so manifest	F
And ominous to others near the King	G
If any indeed were near him at this hour	H
Save Merlin once the wisest of all men	I
And weary Dagonet whom he had made	J
A knight for love of him and his abused	K
Integrity He might have wondered hard	E
And wondered much and after wondering	G
He might have summoned with as little heart	L
As he had now for crowns the fond lost Merlin	M
Whose Nemesis had made of him a slave	N
A man of dalliance and a sybarite	L
	-
Men change in Brittany Merlin said the King	G
And even his grief had strife to freeze again	I
A dreary smile for the transmuted seer	O
Now robed in heavy wealth of purple silk	P
With frogs and foreign tassels On his face	Q
Too smooth now for a wizard or a sage	R
Lay written for the King's remembering eyes	S
A pathos of a lost authority	L
Long faded and unconscionably gone	T
And on the King's heart lay a sudden cold	L
I might as well have left him in his grave	N
As he would say it saying what was true	U
As death is true This Merlin is not mine	V
But Vivian's My crown is less than hers	W
And I am less than woman to this man	X
	-
Then Merlin as one reading Arthur's words	Y
On viewless tablets in the air before him	Z
Now Arthur since you are a child of mine	V
A foster child and that's a kind of child	L
Be not from hearsay or despair too eager	H
To dash your meat with bitter seasoning	G
So none that are more famished than yourself	A2
Shall have what you refuse For you are King	G
And if you starve yourself you starve the state	L
And then by sundry looks and silences	B2
Of those you loved and by the lax regard	L
Of those you knew for fawning enemies	C2
You may learn soon that you are King no more	A
But a slack blasted and sad fronted man	X
Made sadder with a crown No other friend	L
Than I could say this to you and say more	A
And if you bid me say no more so be it	L
	-
The King who sat with folded arms now bowed	L
His head and felt unfought and all aflame	D2
Like immanent hell fire the wretchedness	C2
That only those who are to lead may feel	E2
And only they when they are maimed and worn	F2
Too sore to covet without shuddering	G
The fixed impending eminence where death	G2
Itself were victory could they but lead	L
Unbitten by the serpents they had fed	L
Turning he spoke Merlin you say the truth	H2
There is no man who could say more to me	L
Today or say so much to me and live	I2
But you are Merlin still or part of him	Z
I did you wrong when I thought otherwise	C2
And I am sorry now Say what you will	J2
We are alone and I shall be alone	K2
As long as Time shall hide a reason here	O
For me to stay in this infested world	L
Where I have sinned and erred and heeded not	L
Your counsel and where you yourself God save us	C2
Have gone down smiling to the smaller life	L2
That you and your incongruous laughter called	L
Your living grave God save us all Merlin	M
When you the seer the founder and the prophet	L
May throw the gold of your immortal treasure	H
Back to the God that gave it and then laugh	M2
Because a woman has you in her arms	C2
Why do you sting me now with a small hive	I2
Of words that are all poison I do not ask	N2
Much honey but why poison me for nothing	G
And with a venom that I know already	L
As I know crowns and wars Why tell a king	G
A poor foiled flouted miserable king	G
That if he lets rats eat his fingers off	O2
He'll have no fingers to fight battles with	P2
I know as much as that for I am still	J2
A king who thought himself a little less	C2
Than God a king who built him palaces	C2
On sand and mud and hears them crumbling now	Q2
And sees them tottering as he knew they must	L
You are the man who made me to be King	G
Therefore say anything	G
	-
Merlin stricken deep	R2
With pity that was old being born of old	L
Foreshadowings made answer to the King	G
This coil of Lancelot and Guinevere	H
Is not for any mortal to undo	U
Or to deny or to make otherwise	C2
But your most violent years are on their way	S2
To days and to a sounding of loud hours	C2
That are to strike for war Let not the time	T2
Between this hour and then be lost in fears	C2
Or told in obscurations and vain faith	U2
In what has been your long security	L
For should your force be slower then than hate	L
And your regret be sharper than your sight	L
And your remorse fall heavier than your sword	L
Then say farewell to Camelot and the crown	V2
But say not you have lost or failed in aught	L
Your golden horoscope of imperfection	W2
Has held in starry words that I have read	L
I see no farther now than I saw then	I
For no man shall be given of everything	G
Together in one life yet I may say	S2
The time is imminent when he shall come	X2
For whom I founded the Siege Perilous	C2
And he shall be too much a living part	L
Of what he brings and what he burns away in	M
To be for long a vexed inhabitant	L
Of this mad realm of stains and lower trials	C2
And here the ways of God again are mixed	L
For this new knight who is to find the Grail	Y2
For you and for the least who pray for you	U
In such lost coombs and hollows of the world	L
As you have never entered is to be	L
The son of him you trusted Lancelot	L
Of all who ever jeopardized a throne	K2
Sure the most evil fated saving one	W2
Your son begotten though you knew not then	I
Your leman was your sister of Morgause	C2
For it is Modred now not Lancelot	L
Whose native hate plans your annihilation	W2
Though he may smile till he be sick and swear	H
Allegiance to an unforgiven father	H
Until at last he shake an empty tongue	Z2
Talked out with too much lying though his lies	C2
Will have a truth to steer them Trust him not	L
For unto you the father he the son	W2
Is like enough to be the last of terrors	C2
If in a field of time that looms to you	U
Far larger than it is you fail to plant	L
And harvest the old seeds of what I say	C2
And so be nourished and adept again	I
For what may come to be But Lancelot	L
Will have you first and you need starve no more	H
For the Queen's love the love that never was	C2
Your Queen is now your Kingdom and hereafter	H
Let no man take it from you or you die	L
Let no man take it from you for a day	C2
For days are long when we are far from what	L
We love and mischief's other name is distance	C2
Let hat be all for I can say no more	H
Not even to Blaise the Hermit were he living	G
Could I say more than I have given you now	Q2
To hear and he alone was my confessor	H
	-
The King arose and paced the floor again	I
I get gray comfort of dark words he said	L
But tell me not that you can say no more	H
You can for I can hear you saying it	L
Yet I'll not ask for more I have enough	A3
Until my new knight comes to prove and find	L
The promise and the glory of the Grail	Y2
Though I shall see no Grail For I have built	L
On sand and mud and I shall see no Grail	Y2
Nor I said Merlin Once I dreamed of it	L
But I was buried I shall see no Grail	Y2
Nor would I have it otherwise I saw	C2
Too much and that was never good for man	X
The man who goes alone too far goes mad	L
In one way or another God knew best	L
And he knows what is coming yet for me	L
I do not ask Like you I have enough	A3
	-
That night King Arthur's apprehension found	L
In Merlin an obscure and restive guest	L
Whose only thought was on the hour of dawn	T
When he should see the last of Camelot	L
And ride again for Brittany and what words	C2
Were said before the King was left alone	K2
Were only darker for reiteration	W2
They parted all provision made secure	H
For Merlin's early convoy to the coast	L
And Arthur tramped the past The loneliness	C2
Of kings around him like the unseen dead	L
Lay everywhere and he was loath to move	B3
As if in fear to meet with his cold hand	L
The touch of something colder Then a whim	Z
Begotten of intolerable doubt	L
Seized him and stung him until he was asking	G
If any longer lived among his knights	C2
A man to trust as once he trusted all	C3
And Lancelot more than all And it is he	L
Who is to have me first so Merlin says	C2
As if he had me not in hell already	L
Lancelot Lancelot He cursed the tears	C2
That cooled his misery and then he asked	L
Himself again if he had one to trust	L
Among his knights till even Bedivere	H
Tor Bors and Percival rough Lamorak	G
Griflet and Gareth and gay Gawaine all	C3
Were dubious knaves or they were like to be	L
For cause to make them so and he had made	L
Himself to be the cause God set me right	L
Before this folly carry me on farther	H
He murmured and he smiled unhappily	L
Though fondly as he thought Yes there is one	W2
Whom I may trust with even my soul's last shred	L
And Dagonet will sing for me tonight	L
An old song not too merry or too sad	L
	-
When Dagonet having entered stood before	H
The King as one affrighted the King smiled	L
You think because I call for you so late	L
That I am angry Dagonet Why so	C2
Have you been saying what I say to you	U
And telling men that you brought Merlin here	H
No So I fancied and if you report	L
No syllable of anything I speak	G
You will have no regrets and I no anger	H
What word of Merlin was abroad today	C2
	-
Today have I heard no man save Gawaine	W2
And to him I said only what all men	W2
Are saying to their neighbors They believe	D3
That you have Merlin here and that his coming	G
Denotes no good Gawaine was curious	C2
But ever mindful of your majesty	L
He pressed me not and we made light of it	L
	-
Gawaine I fear makes light of everything	G
The King said looking down Sometimes I wish	E3
I had a full Round Table of Gawaines	C2
But that's a freak of midnight never mind it	L
Sing me a song one of those endless things	C2
That Merlin liked of old when men were younger	H
And there were more stars twinkling in the sky	G
I see no stars that are alive tonight	L
And I am not the king of sleep So then	W2
Sing me an old song	G
	-
Dagonet's quick eye	G
Caught sorrow in the King's and he knew more	H
In a fool's way than even the King himself	A2
Of what was hovering over Camelot	L
O King he said I cannot sing tonight	L
If you command me I shall try to sing	G
But I shall fail for there are no songs now	W2
In my old throat or even in these poor strings	C2
That I can hardly follow with my fingers	C2
Forgive me kill me but I cannot sing	G
Dagonet fell down then on both his knees	C2
And shook there while he clutched the King's cold hand	L
And wept for what he knew	W2
	-
There Dagonet	L
I shall not kill my knight or make him sing	G
No more get up and get you off to bed	L
There'll be another time for you to sing	G
So get you to your covers and sleep well	F3
Alone again the King said bitterly	L
Yes I have one friend left and they who know	W2
As much of him as of themselves believe	D3
That he's a fool Poor Dagonet's a fool	G3
And if he be a fool what else am I	G
Than one fool more to make the world complete	L
The love that never was ' Fool fool fool fool	G3
	-
The King was long awake No covenant	L
With peace was his tonight and he knew sleep	R2
As he knew the cold eyes of Guinevere	H
That yesterday had stabbed him having first	L
On Lancelot's name struck fire and left him then	W2
As now they left him with a wounded heart	L
A wounded pride and a sickening pang worse yet	L
Of lost possession He thought wearily	L
Of watchers by the dead late wayfarers	C2
Rough handed mariners on ships at sea	C2
Lone yawning sentries wastrels and all others	C2
Who might be saying somewhere to themselves	C2
The King is now asleep in Camelot	L
God save the King God save the King indeed	L
If there be now a king to save he said	L
Then he saw giants rising in the dark	G
Born horribly of memories and new fears	C2
That in the gray lit irony of dawn	W2
Were partly to fade out and be forgotten	W2
And then there might be sleep and for a time	T2
There might again be peace His head was hot	L
And throbbing but the rest of him was cold	L
As he lay staring hard where nothing stood	L
And hearing what was not even while he saw	C2
And heard like dust and thunder far away	C2
The coming confirmation of the words	C2
Of him who saw so much and feared so little	H3
Of all that was to be No spoken doom	I3
That ever chilled the last night of a felon	W2
Prepared a dragging anguish more profound	L
And absolute than Arthur in these hours	C2
Made out of darkness and of Merlin's words	C2
No tide that ever crashed on Lyonnesse	C2
Drove echoes inland that were lonelier	H
For widowed ears among the fisher folk	G
Than for the King were memories tonight	L
Of old illusions that were dead for ever	H