Merlin Vi Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHDIJKLM NOPKQRKSKTUVWVXYZXA2 FN XB2C2RD2E2XF2RG2RH2I 2CJ2K2L2XM2N2H2KO2P2 Q2R2KR2S2A2T2RU2JV2W 2A XKKX2Y2ARB2Z2A3KH2XR B3G2C3XARXXZD3RARAKA N AE3F3D3G3G3AH3RRI3B2 J3K3AGDGG2XH2NL3M3D2 N3Z2I3O3H2KP3M3I3GN3 AGKRQ3XRM3R3GM3B3R3M 3RS3T3U3AB3B2Y2I3Z2A RV3AW3GKNO2H2AH2AAX3 RKE3NH2AH2XK3X2XAH2B 3AY3M3RG2RM3RAOZXGKM 3J2XY3H2AI3H2H2I3Z3W 3GH2A4R O2RRB4AJ2UXC4KRNAAD4 H2E4F4H2H2RH2RRG4 B2H4AW3I4AKRQ3W3H2AX AA3J4B2M3K4XXADL4M4U RAN4I3O4GP4B2RRU3O4L 2AZ2H2UW3A AGAOB2AA3GAAAAQ4AH2R RF4A AB3 B2RR4AAI3AS4H2 RT4RRAAH2AU4ANARZAV4 GW4AX4R AY4XZ2NA3AH2A3Z2Z4H2 G2ARARY3R4J2Z2H2Z2F4 AGK2R3B2AAZ2 MY3D4AF4K3AL2U3S3MAV 3R3RY3AAAARJ2RZ2GRK3 E4RG2M4RAZ4AT4AAARJ2 GAE4RRAR4 O2G4Z2Z2ZG4S3AG4RG4A RAAG2AAAG4G4Z2AG4OG4 G4RRLG4RAZ2A G4G4G4G4G4G4RH2RRG4Z 2G4R3Z2G4G4AG4AAZ2A RRAG2G2H2AS3Z2G4G2H2 AG4E4G4H2M3 AG4G4G4

No kings are coming on their hands and knees	A
Nor yet on horses or in chariots	B
To carry me away from you again	C
Said Merlin winding around Vivian's ear	D
A shred of her black hair King Arthur knows	E
That I have done with kings and that I speak	F
No more their crafty language Once I knew it	G
But now the only language I have left	H
Is one that I must never let you hear	D
Too long or know too well When towering deeds	I
Once done shall only out of dust and words	J
Be done again the doer may then be wary	K
Lest in the complement of his new fabric	L
There be more words than dust	M
	-
Why tell me so	N
Said Vivian and a singular thin laugh	O
Came after her thin question Do you think	P
That I'm so far away from history	K
That I require even of the wisest man	Q
Who ever said the wrong thing to a woman	R
So large a light on what I know already	K
When all I seek is here before me now	S
In your new eyes that you have brought for me	K
From Camelot The eyes you took away	T
Were sad and old and I could see in them	U
A Merlin who remembered all the kings	V
He ever saw and wished himself almost	W
Away from Vivian to make other kings	V
And shake the world again in the old manner	X
I saw myself no bigger than a beetle	Y
For several days and wondered if your love	Z
Were large enough to make me any larger	X
When you came back Am I a beetle still	A2
She stood up on her toes and held her cheek	F
For some time against his and let him go	N
	-
I fear the time has come for me to wander	X
A little in my prison yard he said	B2
No tell me everything that you have seen	C2
And heard and done and seen done and heard done	R
Since you deserted me And tell me first	D2
What the King thinks of me The King believes	E2
That you are almost what you are he told her	X
The beauty of all ages that are vanished	F2
Reborn to be the wonder of one woman	R
I knew he hated me What else of him	G2
And all that I have seen and heard and done	R
Which is not much would make a weary telling	H2
And all your part of it would be to sleep	I2
And dream that Merlin had his beard again	C
Then tell me more about your good fool knight	J2
Sir Dagonet If Blaise were not half mad	K2
Already with his pondering on the name	L2
And shield of his unshielding nameless father	X
I'd make a fool of him I'd call him Ajax	M2
I'd have him shake his fist at thunder storms	N2
And dance a jig as long as there was lightning	H2
And so till I forgot myself entirely	K
Not even your love may do so much as that	O2
Thunder and lightning are no friends of mine	P2
Said Merlin slowly more than they are yours	Q2
They bring me nearer to the elements	R2
From which I came than I care now to be	K
You owe a service to those elements	R2
For by their service you outwitted age	S2
And made the world a kingdom of your will	A2
He touched her hand smiling Whatever service	T2
Of mine awaits them will not be forgotten	R
He said and the smile faded on his face	U2
Now of all graceless and ungrateful wizards	J
But there she ceased for she found in his eyes	V2
The first of a new fear The wrong word rules	W2
Today she said and we'll have no more journeys	A
	-
Although he wandered rather more than ever	X
Since he had come again to Brittany	K
From Camelot Merlin found eternally	K
Before him a new loneliness that made	X2
Of garden park and woodland all alike	Y2
A desolation and a changelessness	A
Defying reason without Vivian	R
Beside him like a child with a black head	B2
Or moving on before him or somewhere	Z2
So near him that although he saw it not	A3
With eyes he felt the picture of her beauty	K
And shivered at the nearness of her being	H2
Without her now there was no past or future	X
And a vague soul consuming premonition	R
He found the only tenant of the present	B3
He wondered when she was away from him	G2
If his avenging injured intellect	C3
Might shine with Arthur's kingdom a twin mirror	X
Fate's plaything for new ages without eyes	A
To see therein themselves and their declension	R
Love made his hours a martyrdom without her	X
The world was like an empty house without her	X
Where Merlin was a prisoner of love	Z
Confined within himself by too much freedom	D3
Repeating an unending exploration	R
Of many solitary silent rooms	A
And only in a way remembering now	R
That once their very solitude and silence	A
Had by the magic of expectancy	K
Made sure what now he doubted though his doubts	A
Day after day were founded on a shadow	N
	-
For now to Merlin in his paradise	A
Had come an unseen angel with a sword	E3
Unseen the touch of which was a long fear	F3
For longer sorrow that had never come	D3
Yet might if he compelled it He discovered	G3
One golden day in autumn as he wandered	G3
That he had made the radiance of two years	A
A misty twilight when he might as well	H3
Have had no mist between him and the sun	R
The sun being Vivian On his coming then	R
To find her all in green against a wall	I3
Of green and yellow leaves and crumbling bread	B2
For birds around the fountain while she sang	J3
And the birds ate the bread he told himself	K3
That everything today was as it was	A
At first and for a minute he believed it	G
I'd have you always all in green out here	D
He said if I had much to say about it	G
She clapped her crumbs away and laughed at him	G2
I've covered up my bones with every color	X
That I can carry on them without screaming	H2
And you have liked them all or made me think so	N
I must have liked them if you thought I did	L3
He answered sighing but the sight of you	M3
Today as on the day I saw you first	D2
All green all wonderful He tore a leaf	N3
To pieces with a melancholy care	Z2
That made her smile Why pause at wonderful'	I3
You've hardly been yourself since you came back	O3
From Camelot where that unpleasant King	H2
Said things that you have never said to me	K
He looked upon her with a worn reproach	P3
The King said nothing that I keep from you	M3
What is it then she asked imploringly	I3
You man of moods and miracles what is it	G
He shook his head and tore another leaf	N3
There is no need of asking what it is	A
Whatever you or I may choose to name it	G
The name of it is Fate who played with me	K
And gave me eyes to read of the unwritten	R
More lines than I have read I see no more	Q3
Today than yesterday but I remember	X
My ways are not the ways of other men	R
My memories go forward It was you	M3
Who said that we were not in tune with Time	R3
It was not I who said it But you knew it	G
What matter then who said it It was you	M3
Who said that Merlin was your punishment	B3
For being in tune with him and not with Time	R3
With Time or with the world and it was you	M3
Who said you were alone even here with Merlin	R
It was not I who said it It is I	S3
Who tell you now my inmost thoughts He laughed	T3
As if at hidden pain around his heart	U3
But there was not much laughing in his eyes	A
They walked and for a season they were silent	B3
I shall know what you mean by that she said	B2
When you have told me Here's an oak you like	Y2
And here's a place that fits me wondrous well	I3
To sit in You sit there I've seen you there	Z2
Before and I have spoiled your noble thoughts	A
By walking all my fingers up and down	R
Your countenance as if they were the feet	V3
Of a small animal with no great claws	A
Tell me a story now about the world	W3
And the men in it what they do in it	G
And why it is they do it all so badly	K
I've told you every story that I know	N
Almost he said O don't begin like that	O2
Well once upon a time there was a King	H2
That has a more commendable address	A
Go on and tell me all about the King	H2
I'll bet the King had warts or carbuncles	A
Or something wrong in his divine insides	A
To make him wish that Adam had died young	X3
	-
Merlin observed her slowly with a frown	R
Of saddened wonder She laughed rather lightly	K
And at his heart he felt again the sword	E3
Whose touch was a long fear for longer sorrow	N
Well once upon a time there was a king	H2
He said again but now in a dry voice	A
That wavered and betrayed a venturing	H2
He paused and would have hesitated longer	X
But something in him that was not himself	K3
Compelled an utterance that his tongue obeyed	X2
As an unwilling child obeys a father	X
Who might be richer for obedience	A
If he obeyed the child There was a king	H2
Who would have made his reign a monument	B3
For kings and peoples of the waiting ages	A
To reverence and remember and to this end	Y3
He coveted and won with no ado	M3
To make a story of a neighbor queen	R
Who limed him with her smile and had of him	G2
In token of their sin what he found soon	R
To be a sort of mongrel son and nephew	M3
And a most precious reptile in addition	R
To ornament his court and carry arms	A
And latterly to be the darker half	O
Of ruin Also the king who made of love	Z
More than he made of life and death together	X
Forgot the world and his example in it	G
For yet another woman one of many	K
And this one he made Queen albeit he knew	M3
That her unsworn allegiance to the knight	J2
That he had loved the best of all his order	X
Must one day bring along the coming end	Y3
Of love and honor and of everything	H2
And with a kingdom builded on two pits	A
Of living sin so founded by the will	I3
Of one wise counsellor who loved the king	H2
And loved the world and therefore made him king	H2
To be a mirror for it the king reigned well	I3
For certain years awaiting a sure doom	Z3
For certain years he waved across the world	W3
A royal banner with a Dragon on it	G
And men of every land fell worshipping	H2
The Dragon as it were the living God	A4
And not the living sin	R
	-
She rose at that	O2
And after a calm yawn she looked at Merlin	R
Why all this new insistence upon sin	R
She said I wonder if I understand	B4
This king of yours with all his pits and dragons	A
I know I do not like him A thinner light	J2
Was in her eyes than he had found in them	U
Since he became the willing prisoner	X
That she had made of him and on her mouth	C4
Lay now a colder line of irony	K
Than all his fears or nightmares could have drawn	R
Before today What reason do you know	N
For me to listen to this king of yours	A
What reading has a man of woman's days	A
Even though the man be Merlin and a prophet	D4
	-
I know no call for you to love the king	H2
Said Merlin driven ruinously along	E4
By the vindictive urging of his fate	F4
I know no call for you to love the king	H2
Although you serve him knowing not yet the king	H2
You serve There is no man or any woman	R
For whom the story of the living king	H2
Is not the story of the living sin	R
I thought my story was the common one	R
For common recognition and regard	G4
	-
Then let us have no more of it she said	B2
For we are not so common I believe	H4
That we need kings and pits and flags and dragons	A
To make us know that we have let the world	W3
Go by us Have you missed the world so much	I4
That you must have it in with all its clots	A
And wounds and bristles on to make us happy	K
Like Blaise with shouts and horns and seven men	R
Triumphant with a most unlovely boar	Q3
Is there no other story in the world	W3
Than this one of a man that you made king	H2
To be a moral for the speckled ages	A
You said once long ago if you remember	X
You are too strange a lady to fear specks'	A
And it was you you said who feared them not	A3
Why do you look at me as at a snake	J4
All coiled to spring at you and strike you dead	B2
I am not going to spring at you or bite you	M3
I'm going home And you if you are kind	K4
Will have no fear to wander for an hour	X
I'm sure the time has come for you to wander	X
And there may come a time for you to say	A
What most you think it is that we need here	D
To make of this Broceliande a refuge	L4
Where two disheartened sinners may forget	M4
A world that has today no place for them	U
	-
A melancholy wave of revelation	R
Broke over Merlin like a rising sea	A
Long viewed unwillingly and long denied	N4
He saw what he had seen but would not feel	I3
Till now the bitterness of what he felt	O4
Was in his throat and all the coldness of it	G
Was on him and around him like a flood	P4
Of lonelier memories than he had said	B2
Were memories although he knew them now	R
For what they were for what this eyes had seen	R
For what his ears had heard and what his heart	U3
Had felt with him not knowing what it felt	O4
But now he knew that his cold angel's name	L2
Was Change and that a mightier will than his	A
Or Vivian's had ordained that he be there	Z2
To Vivian he could not say anything	H2
But words that had no more of hope in them	U
Than anguish had of peace I meant the world	W3
I meant the world he groaned not you not me	A
	-
Again the frozen line of irony	A
Was on her mouth He looked up once at it	G
And then away too fearful of her eyes	A
To see what he could hear now in her laugh	O
That melted slowly into what she said	B2
Like snow in icy water This world of yours	A
Will surely be the end of us And why not	A3
I'm overmuch afraid we're part of it	G
Or why do we build walls up all around us	A
With gates of iron that make us think the day	A
Of judgment's coming when they clang behind us	A
And yet you tell me that you fear no specks	A
With you I never cared for them enough	Q4
To think of them I was too strange a lady	A
And your return is now a speckled king	H2
And something that you call a living sin	R
That's like an uninvited poor relation	R
Who comes without a welcome rather late	F4
And on a foundered horse	A
	-
Specks What are specks	A
He gazed at her in a forlorn wonderment	B3
That made her say You said I fear them not '	-
If I were king in Camelot ' you said	B2
I might fear more than specks ' Have you forgotten	R
Don't tell me Merlin you are growing old	R4
Why don't you make somehow a queen of me	A
And give me half the world I'd wager thrushes	A
That I should reign with you to turn the wheel	I3
As well as any king that ever was	A
The curse on me is that I cannot serve	S4
A ruler who forgets that he is king	H2
	-
In this bewildered misery Merlin then	R
Stared hard at Vivian's face more like a slave	T4
Who sought for common mercy than like Merlin	R
You speak a language that was never mine	R
Or I have lost my wits Why do you seize	A
The flimsiest of opportunities	A
To make of what I said another thing	H2
Than love or reason could have let me say	A
Or let me fancy Why do you keep the truth	U4
So far away from me when all your gates	A
Will open at your word and let me go	N
To some place where no fear or weariness	A
Of yours need ever dwell Why does a woman	R
Made otherwise a miracle of love	Z
And loveliness and of immortal beauty	A
Tear one word by the roots out of a thousand	V4
And worry it and torture it and shake it	G
Like a small dog that has a rag to play with	W4
What coil of an ingenious destiny	A
Is this that makes of what I never meant	X4
A meaning as remote as hell from heaven	R
	-
I don't know Vivian said reluctantly	A
And half as if in pain I'm going home	Y4
I'm going home and leave you here to wander	X
Pray take your kings and sins away somewhere	Z2
And bury them and bury the Queen in also	N
I know this king he lives in Camelot	A3
And I shall never like him There are specks	A
Almost all over him Long live the king	H2
But not the king who lives in Camelot	A3
With Modred Lancelot and Guinevere	Z2
And all four speckled like a merry nest	Z4
Of addled eggs together You made him King	H2
Because you loved the world and saw in him	G2
From infancy a mirror for the millions	A
The world will see itself in him and then	R
The world will say its prayers and wash its face	A
And build for some new king a new foundation	R
Long live the King But now I apprehend	Y3
A time for me to shudder and grow old	R4
And garrulous and so become a fright	J2
For Blaise to take out walking in warm weather	Z2
Should I give way to long considering	H2
Of worlds you may have lost while prisoned here	Z2
With me and my light mind I contemplate	F4
Another name for this forbidden place	A
And one more fitting Tell me if you find it	G
Some fitter name than Eden We have had	K2
A man and woman in it for some time	R3
And now it seems we have a Tree of Knowledge
She looked up at the branches overhead	B2
And shrugged her shoulders Then she went away	A
And what was left of Merlin's happiness	A
Like a disloyal phantom followed her	Z2
	-
He felt the sword of his cold angel thrust	M
And twisted in his heart as if the end	Y3
Were coming next but the cold angel passed
Invisibly and left him desolate	D4
With misty brow and eyes The man who sees	A
May see too far and he may see too late	F4
The path he takes unseen he told himself	K3
When he found thought again The man who sees	A
May go on seeing till the immortal flame	L2
That lights and lures him folds him in its heart	U3
And leaves of what there was of him to die	S3
An item of inhospitable dust	M
That love and hate alike must hide away	A
Or there may still be charted for his feet	V3
A dimmer faring where the touch of time	R3
Were like the passing of a twilight moth
From flower to flower into oblivion	R
If there were not somewhere a barren end	Y3
Of moths and flowers and glimmering far away	A
Beyond a desert where the flowerless days	A
Are told in slow defeats and agonies	A
The guiding of a nameless light that once	A
Had made him see too much and has by now	R
Revealed in death to the undying child
Of Lancelot the Grail For this pure light	J2
Has many rays to throw for many men	R
To follow and the wise are not all pure	Z2
Nor are the pure all wise who follow it	G
There are more rays than men But let the man	R
Who saw too much and was to drive himself	K3
From paradise play too lightly or too long	E4
Among the moths and flowers he finds at last
There is a dim way out and he shall grope
Where pleasant shadows lead him to the plain	R
That has no shadow save his own behind him	G2
And there with no complaint nor much regret	M4
Shall he plod on with death between him now	R
And the far light that guides him till he falls	A
And has an empty thought of empty rest	Z4
Then Fate will put a mattock in his hands	A
And lash him while he digs himself the grave	T4
That is to be the pallet and the shroud
Of his poor blundering bones The man who saw	A
Too much must have an eye to see at last
Where Fate has marked the clay and he shall delve
Although his hand may slacken and his knees	A
May rock without a method as he toils	A
For there's a delving that is to be done	R
If not for God for man I see the light	J2
But I shall fall before I come to it	G
For I am old I was young yesterday	A
Time's hand that I have held away so long	E4
Grips hard now on my shoulder Time has won	R
Tomorrow I shall say to Vivian	R
That I am old and gaunt and garrulous	A
And tell her one more story I am old	R4
	-
There were long hours for Merlin after that	O2
And much long wandering in his prison yard	G4
Where now the progress of each heavy step
Confirmed a stillness of impending change
And imminent farewell To Vivian's ear	Z2
There came for many days no other story	Z2
Than Merlin's iteration of his love	Z
And his departure from Broceliande	G4
Where Merlin still remained In Vivian's eye	S3
There was a quiet kindness and at times	A
A smoky flash of incredulity	G4
That faded into pain Was this the Merlin	R
This incarnation of idolatry	G4
And all but supplicating deference	A
This bowed and reverential contradiction	R
Of all her dreams and her realities	A
Was this the Merlin who for years and years	A
Before she found him had so made her love him	G2
That kings and princes thrones and diadems	A
And honorable men who drowned themselves	A
For love were less to her than melon shells	A
Was this the Merlin whom her fate had sent	G4
One spring day to come ringing at her gate	G4
Bewildering her love with happy terror	Z2
That later was to be all happiness	A
Was this the Merlin who had made the world	G4
Half over and then left it with a laugh	O
To be the youngest oldest weirdest gayest	G4
And wisest and sometimes the foolishest	G4
Of all the men of her consideration	R
Was this the man who had made other men	R
As ordinary as arithmetic	L
Was this man Merlin who came now so slowly	G4
Towards the fountain where she stood again	R
In shimmering green Trembling he took her hands	A
And pressed them fondly one upon the other	Z2
Between his	A
	-
I was wrong that other day	G4
For I have one more story I am old	G4
He waited like one hungry for the word	G4
Not said and she found in his eyes a light	G4
As patient as a candle in a window	G4
That looks upon the sea and is a mark
For ships that have gone down Tomorrow he said	G4
Tomorrow I shall go away again	R
To Camelot and I shall see the King	H2
Once more and I may come to you again	R
Once more and I shall go away again	R
For ever There is now no more than that	G4
For me to do and I shall do no more	Z2
I saw too much when I saw Camelot	G4
And I saw farther backward into Time	R3
And forward than a man may see and live
When I made Arthur king I saw too far	Z2
But not so far as this Fate played with me	G4
As I have played with Time and Time like me	G4
Being less than Fate will have on me his vengeance	A
On Fate there is no vengeance even for God	G4
He drew her slowly into his embrace	A
And held her there but when he kissed her lips	A
They were as cold as leaves and had no answer	Z2
For Time had given him then to prove his words	A
A frozen moment of a woman's life
	-
When Merlin the next morning came again	R
In the same pilgrim robe that he had worn	R
While he sat waiting where the cherry blossoms	A
Outside the gate fell on him and around him	G2
Grief came to Vivian at the sight of him	G2
And like a flash of a swift ugly knife
A blinding fear came with it Are you going	H2
She said more with her lips than with her voice	A
And he said I am going Blaise and I	S3
Are going down together to the shore	Z2
And Blaise is coming back For this one day	G4
Be good enough to spare him for I like him	G2
I tell you now as once I told the King	H2
That I can be no more than what I was	A
And I can say no more than I have said	G4
Sometimes you told me that I spoke too long	E4
And sent me off to wander That was good	G4
I go now for another wandering	H2
And I pray God that all be well with you	M3
	-
For long there was a whining in her ears	A
Of distant wheels departing When it ceased	G4
She closed the gate again so quietly	G4
That Merlin could have heard no sound of it	G4

Edwin Arlington Robinson

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