Merlin Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHAC IJKCLMNOPCQRCMCSCCCT UVCJLLWXCYZA2BB2AW CUCOKCC2LD2E2WWF2WWG 2H2I2J2WK2CC H2L2AH2LWM2CH2H2W H2H2G2K2H2AAH2HN2XI2 O2P2LH2H2Q2WC H2WWAH2LJK2K2JN2AH2R 2W H2R2CAF2CS2WWF2WH2F2 F2 H2H2H2WWWACJL CCH2H2T2AH2H2WWWH2U2 WWWT2H2WH2WH2WH2WWWA H2A2Q2 WAH2AH2H2AH2H2F2CWH2 CGawaine Gawaine what look ye for to see | A |
So far beyond the faint edge of the world | B |
D ye look to see the lady Vivian | C |
Pursued by divers ominous vile demons | D |
That have another king more fierce than ours | E |
Or think ye that if ye look far enough | F |
And hard enough into the feathery west | G |
Ye ll have a glimmer of the Grail itself | H |
And if ye look for neither Grail nor lady | A |
What look ye for to see Gawaine Gawaine | C |
- | |
So Dagonet whom Arthur made a knight | I |
Because he loved him as he laughed at him | J |
Intoned his idle presence on a day | K |
To Gawaine who had thought himself alone | C |
Had there been in him thought of anything | L |
Save what was murmured now in Camelot | M |
Of Merlin s hushed and all but unconfirmed | N |
Appearance out of Brittany It was heard | O |
At first there was a ghost in Arthur s palace | P |
But soon among the scullions and anon | C |
Among the knights a firmer credit held | Q |
All tongues from uttering what all glances told | R |
Though not for long Gawaine this afternoon | C |
Fearing he might say more to Lancelot | M |
Of Merlin s rumor laden resurrection | C |
Than Lancelot would have an ear to cherish | S |
Had sauntered off with his imagination | C |
To Merlin s Rock where now there was no Merlin | C |
To meditate upon a whispering town | C |
Below him in the silence Once he said | T |
To Gawaine You are young and that being so | U |
Behold the shining city of our dreams | V |
And of our King Long live the King said Gawaine | C |
Long live the King said Merlin after him | J |
Better for me that I shall not be King | L |
Wherefore I say again Long live the King | L |
And add God save him also and all kings | W |
All kings and queens I speak in general | X |
Kings have I known that were but weary men | C |
With no stout appetite for more than peace | Y |
That was not made for them Nor were they made | Z |
For kings Gawaine said laughing You are young | A2 |
Gawaine and you may one day hold the world | B |
Between your fingers knowing not what it is | B2 |
That you are holding Better for you and me | A |
I think that we shall not be kings | W |
- | |
Gawaine | C |
Remembering Merlin s words of long ago | U |
Frowned as he thought and having frowned again | C |
He smiled and threw an acorn at a lizard | O |
There s more afoot and in the air to day | K |
Than what is good for Camelot Merlin | C |
May or may not know all but he said well | C2 |
To say to me that he would not be King | L |
Nor more would I be King Far down he gazed | D2 |
On Camelot until he made of it | E2 |
A phantom town of many stillnesses | W |
Not reared for men to dwell in or for kings | W |
To reign in without omens and obscure | F2 |
Familiars to bring terror to their days | W |
For though a knight and one as hard at arms | W |
As any save the fate begotten few | G2 |
That all acknowledged or in envy loathed | H2 |
He felt a foreign sort of creeping up | I2 |
And down him as of moist things in the dark | J2 |
When Dagonet coming on him unawares | W |
Presuming on his title of Sir Fool | K2 |
Addressed him and crooned on till he was done | C |
What look ye for to see Gawaine Gawaine | C |
- | |
Sir Dagonet you best and wariest | H2 |
Of all dishonest men I look through Time | L2 |
For sight of what it is that is to be | A |
I look to see it though I see it not | H2 |
I see a town down there that holds a king | L |
And over it I see a few small clouds | W |
Like feathers in the west as you observe | M2 |
And I shall see no more this afternoon | C |
Than what there is around us every day | H2 |
Unless you have a skill that I have not | H2 |
To ferret the invisible for rats | W |
- | |
If you see what s around us every day | H2 |
You need no other showing to go mad | H2 |
Remember that and take it home with you | G2 |
And say tonight I had it of a fool | K2 |
With no immediate obliquity | H2 |
For this one or for that one or for me | A |
Gawaine having risen eyed the fool curiously | A |
I ll not forget I had it of a knight | H2 |
Whose only folly is to fool himself | H |
And as for making other men to laugh | N2 |
And so forget their sins and selves a little | X |
There s no great folly there So keep it up | I2 |
As long as you ve a legend or a song | O2 |
And have whatever sport of us you like | P2 |
Till havoc is the word and we fall howling | L |
For I ve a guess there may not be so loud | H2 |
A sound of laughing here in Camelot | H2 |
When Merlin goes again to his gay grave | Q2 |
In Brittany To mention lesser terrors | W |
Men say his beard is gone | C |
- | |
Do men say that | H2 |
A twitch of an impatient weariness | W |
Played for a moment over the lean face | W |
Of Dagonet who reasoned inwardly | A |
The friendly zeal of this inquiring knight | H2 |
Will overtake his tact and leave it squealing | L |
One of these days Gawaine looked hard at him | J |
If I be too familiar with a fool | K2 |
I m on the way to be another fool | K2 |
He mused and owned a rueful qualm within him | J |
Yes Dagonet he ventured with a laugh | N2 |
Men tell me that his beard has vanished wholly | A |
And that he shines now as the Lord s anointed | H2 |
And wears the valiance of an ageless youth | R2 |
Crowned with a glory of eternal peace | W |
- | |
Dagonet smiling strangely shook his head | H2 |
I grant your valiance of a kind of youth | R2 |
To Merlin but your crown of peace I question | C |
For though I know no more than any churl | A |
Who pinches any chambermaid soever | F2 |
In the King s palace I look not to Merlin | C |
For peace when out of his peculiar tomb | S2 |
He comes again to Camelot Time swings | W |
A mighty scythe and some day all your peace | W |
Goes down before its edge like so much clover | F2 |
No it is not for peace that Merlin comes | W |
Without a trumpet and without a beard | H2 |
If what you say men say of him be true | F2 |
Nor yet for sudden war | F2 |
- | |
Gawaine for a moment | H2 |
Met then the ambiguous gaze of Dagonet | H2 |
And making nothing of it looked abroad | H2 |
As if at something cheerful on all sides | W |
And back again to the fool s unasking eyes | W |
Well Dagonet if Merlin would have peace | W |
Let Merlin stay away from Brittany | A |
Said he with admiration for the man | C |
Whom Folly called a fool And we have known him | J |
We knew him once when he knew everything | L |
- | |
He knew as much as God would let him know | C |
Until he met the lady Vivian | C |
I tell you that for the world knows all that | H2 |
Also it knows he told the King one day | H2 |
That he was to be buried and alive | T2 |
In Brittany and that the King should see | A |
The face of him no more Then Merlin sailed | H2 |
Away to Vivian in Broceliande | H2 |
Where now she crowns him and herself with flowers | W |
And feeds him fruits and wines and many foods | W |
Of many savors and sweet ortolans | W |
Wise books of every lore of every land | H2 |
Are there to fill his days if he require them | U2 |
And there are players of all instruments | W |
Flutes hautboys drums and viols and she sings | W |
To Merlin till he trembles in her arms | W |
And there forgets that any town alive | T2 |
Had ever such a name as Camelot | H2 |
So Vivian holds him with her love they say | W |
And he who has no age has not grown old | H2 |
I swear to nothing but that s what they say | W |
That s being buried in Broceliande | H2 |
For too much wisdom and clairvoyancy | W |
But you and all who live Gawaine have heard | H2 |
This tale or many like it more than once | W |
And you must know that Love when Love invites | W |
Philosophy to play plays high and wins | W |
Or low and loses And you say to me | A |
If Merlin would have peace let Merlin stay | H2 |
Away from Brittany Gawaine you are young | A2 |
And Merlin s in his grave | Q2 |
- | |
Merlin said once | W |
That I was young and it s a joy for me | A |
That I am here to listen while you say it | H2 |
Young or not young if that be burial | A |
May I be buried long before I die | H2 |
I might be worse than young I might be old | H2 |
Dagonet answered and without a smile | A |
Somehow I fancy Merlin saying that | H2 |
A fancy a mere fancy Then he smiled | H2 |
And such a doom as his may be for you | F2 |
Gawaine should your untiring divination | C |
Delve in the veiled eternal mysteries | W |
Too far to be a pleasure for the Lord | H2 |
And when you stake your wisdom for a woman | C |
Edwin Arlington Robinson
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