Merlin Vii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFDGGHIGJKLMNGON P GQRGSTUVW XYTUUUWYZYZ UYDEYA2B2YEGYUC2M D2UUUGYE2TF2JYYG2EEU UH2JUUGUGEI2J2K2YUUA L2J2M2 J2UGYDGJ2N2PJ2DDGDUD J2J2GDC2DJ2J2J2OJ2O2 DGUGJ2OE2J2PJ2D DYUYUP2GYL2 J2J2J2UAQ2L2Y YDJ2R2GJ2J2UGJ2DGUUG GGDYN2DADAAGGUDJ2AGI GDAJ2J2J2UJ2DS2J2UJ2 D PGT2 PUJ2GU2V2UJ2J2OYUDU J2AUDJ2UJ2DJ2DW2J2J2 GDYJ2UO2DJ2 J2GJ2DDIYUDUX2UE2DUD DDDDYUDY2DYDODUUDGDU YE2DD YDGOZ2O2UYGUA3DDO2UU GDUUT2B3DD UDDUUDGDB3DDGC3UGDDD 3DDGGDUDO2DUUDDA3DLD DDUUDUDDUOGDDDDGYD DDGDGDGDUDODY GDUDDOE3UDDYUDUDDGDU LDGO2UDDYDDDDDDUDDDU DUDDDUGDGDDDDDYGDDUD T2DO2T2T2UDDUDGGDLGU DGYDE2DDYFD GGGUDGGDDUDDDPDGDDUP GUDUDGUP DDUDGDF3PE2GGV2GYUUY GDDDDO2GO2D GGDGPT2GDDUG3GDDYUDD C3DUDGDDDUGDDDD D

By Merlin's Rock where Dagonet the fool	A
Was given through many a dying afternoon	B
To sit and meditate on human ways	C
And ways divine Gawaine and Bedivere	D
Stood silent gazing down on Camelot	E
The two had risen and were going home	F
It hits me sore Gawaine said Bedivere	D
To think on all the tumult and affliction	G
Down there and all the noise and preparation	G
That hums of coming death and if my fears	H
Be born of reason of what's more than death	I
Wherefore I say to you again Gawaine	G
To you that this late hour is not too late	J
For you to change yourself and change the King	K
For though the King may love me with a love	L
More tried and older and more sure may be	M
Than for another for such a time as this	N
The friend who turns him to the world again	G
Shall have a tongue more gracious and an eye	O
More shrewd than mine For such a time as this	N
The King must have a glamour to persuade him	P
	-
The King shall have a glamour and anon	G
Gawaine said and he shot death from his eyes	Q
If you were King as Arthur is or was	R
And Lancelot had carried off your Queen	G
And killed a score or so of your best knights	S
Not mentioning my two brothers whom he slew	T
Unarmored and unarmed God save your wits	U
Two stewards with skewers could have done as much	V
And you and I might now be rotting for it	W
	-
But Lancelot's men were crowded they were crushed	X
And there was nothing for them but to strike	Y
Or die not seeing where they struck Think you	T
They would have slain Gareth and Gaheris	U
And Tor and all those other friends of theirs	U
God's mercy for the world he made I say	U
And for the blood that writes the story of it	W
Gareth and Gaheris Tor and Lamorak	Y
All dead with all the others that are dead	Z
These years have made me turn to Lamorak	Y
For counsel and now Lamorak is dead	Z
	-
Why do you fling those two names in my face	U
'Twas Modred made an end of Lamorak	Y
Not I and Lancelot now has done for Tor	D
I'll urge no king on after Lancelot	E
For such a two as Tor and Lamorak	Y
Their father killed my father and their friend	A2
Was Lancelot not I I'll own my fault	B2
I'm living and while I've a tongue can talk	Y
I'll say this to the King Burn Lancelot	E
By inches till he give you back the Queen	G
Then hang him drown him or do anything	Y
To rid the world of him ' He killed my brothers	U
And he was once my friend Now damn the soul	C2
Of him who killed my brothers There you have me	M
	-
You are a strong man Gawaine and your strength	D2
Goes ill where foes are You may cleave their limbs	U
And heads off but you cannot damn their souls	U
What you may do now is to save their souls	U
And bodies too and like enough your own	G
Remember that King Arthur is a king	Y
And where there is a king there is a kingdom	E2
Is not the kingdom any more to you	T
Than one brief enemy Would you see it fall	F2
And the King with it for one mortal hate	J
That burns out reason Gawaine you are king	Y
Today Another day may see no king	Y
But Havoc if you have no other word	G2
For Arthur now than hate for Lancelot	E
Is not the world as large as Lancelot	E
Is Lancelot because one woman's eyes	U
Are brighter when they look on him to sluice	U
The world with angry blood Poor flesh Poor flesh	H2
And you Gawaine are you so gaffed with hate	J
You cannot leave it and so plunge away	U
To stiller places and there see for once	U
What hangs on this pernicious expedition	G
The King in his insane forgetfulness	U
Would undertake with you to drum him on	G
Are you as mad as he and Lancelot	E
Made ravening into one man twice as mad	I2
As either Is the kingdom of the world	J2
Now rocking to go down in sound and blood	K2
And ashes and sick ruin and for the sake	Y
Of three men and a woman If it be so	U
God's mercy for the world he made I say	U
And say again to Dagonet Sir Fool	A
Your throne is empty and you may as well	L2
Sit on it and be ruler of the world	J2
From now till supper time	M2
	-
Sir Dagonet	J2
Appearing made reply to Bedivere's	U
Dry welcome with a famished look of pain	G
On which he built a smile If I were King	Y
You Bedivere should be my counsellor	D
And we should have no more wars over women	G
I'll sit me down and meditate on that	J2
Gawaine for all his anger laughed a little	N2
And clapped the fool's lean shoulder for he loved him	P
And was with Arthur when he made him knight	J2
Then Dagonet said on to Bedivere	D
As if his tongue would make a jest of sorrow	D
Sometime I'll tell you what I might have done	G
Had I been Lancelot and you King Arthur	D
Each having in himself the vicious essence	U
That now lives in the other and makes war	D
When all men are like you and me my lord	J2
When all are rational or rickety	J2
There may be no more war But what's here now	G
Lancelot loves the Queen and he makes war	D
Of love the King being bitten to the soul	C2
By love and hate that work in him together	D
Makes war of madness Gawaine hates Lancelot	J2
And he to be in tune makes war of hate	J2
Modred hates everything yet he can see	J2
With one damned illegitimate small eye	O
His father's crown and with another like it	J2
He sees the beauty of the Queen herself	O2
He needs the two for his ambitious pleasure	D
And therefore he makes war of his ambition	G
And somewhere in the middle of all this	U
There's a squeezed world that elbows for attention	G
Poor Merlin buried in Broceliande	J2
He must have had an academic eye	O
For woman when he founded Arthur's kingdom	E2
And in Broceliande he may be sorry	J2
Flutes hautboys drums and viols God be with him	P
I'm glad they tell me there's another world	J2
For this one's a disease without a doctor	D
	-
No not so bad as that said Bedivere	D
The doctor like ourselves may now be learning	Y
And Merlin may have gauged his enterprise	U
Whatever the cost he may have paid for knowing	Y
We pass but many are to follow us	U
And what they build may stay though I believe	P2
Another age will have another Merlin	G
Another Camelot and another King	Y
Sir Dagonet farewell	L2
	-
Farewell Sir Knight	J2
And you Sir Knight Gawaine you have the world	J2
Now in your fingers an uncommon toy	J2
Albeit a small persuasion in the balance	U
With one man's hate I'm glad you're not a fool	A
For then you might be rickety as I am	Q2
And rational as Bedivere Farewell	L2
I'll sit here and be king God save the King	Y
	-
But Gawaine scowled and frowned and answered nothing	Y
As he went slowly down with Bedivere	D
To Camelot where Arthur's army waited	J2
The King's word for the melancholy march	R2
To Joyous Gard where Lancelot hid the Queen	G
And armed his host and there was now no joy	J2
As there was now no joy for Dagonet	J2
While he sat brooding with his wan cheek bones	U
Hooked with his bony fingers Go Gawaine	G
He mumbled Go your way and drag the world	J2
Along down with you What's a world or so	D
To you if you can hide an ell of iron	G
Somewhere in Lancelot and hear him wheeze	U
And sputter once or twice before he goes	U
Wherever the Queen sends him There's a man	G
Who should have been a king and would have been	G
Had he been born so So should I have been	G
A king had I been born so fool or no	D
King Dagonet or Dagonet the King	Y
King Fool Fool King 'twere not impossible	N2
I'll meditate on that and pray for Arthur	D
Who made me all I am except a fool	A
Now he goes mad for love as I might go	D
Had I been born a king and not a fool	A
Today I think I'd rather be a fool	A
Today the world is less than one scared woman	G
Wherefore a field of waving men may soon	G
Be shorn by Time's indifferent scythe because	U
The King is mad The seeds of history	D
Are small but given a few gouts of warm blood	J2
For quickening they sprout out wondrously	A
And have a leaping growth whereof no man	G
May shun such harvesting of change or death	I
Or life as may fall on him to be borne	G
When I am still alive and rickety	D
And Bedivere's alive and rational	A
If he come out of this and there's a doubt	J2
The King Gawaine Modred and Lancelot	J2
May all be lying underneath a weight	J2
Of bloody sheaves too heavy for their shoulders	U
All spent and all dishonored and all dead	J2
And if it come to be that this be so	D
And it be true that Merlin saw the truth	S2
Such harvest were the best Your fool sees not	J2
So far as Merlin sees yet if he saw	U
The truth why then such harvest were the best	J2
I'll pray for Arthur I can do no more	D
	-
Why not for Merlin Or do you count him	P
In this extreme so foreign to salvation	G
That prayer would be a stranger to his name	T2
	-
Poor Dagonet with terror shaking him	P
Stood up and saw before him an old face	U
Made older with an inch of silver beard	J2
And faced eyes more eloquent of pain	G
And ruin than all the faded eyes of age	U2
Till now had ever been although in them	V2
There was a mystic and intrinsic peace	U
Of one who sees where men of nearer sight	J2
See nothing On their way to Camelot	J2
Gawaine and Bedivere had passed him by	O
With lax attention for the pilgrim cloak	Y
They passed and what it hid yet Merlin saw	U
Their faces and he saw the tale was true	D
That he had lately drawn from solemn strangers	U
	-
Well Dagonet and by your leave he said	J2
I'll rest my lonely relics for a while	A
On this rock that was mine and now is yours	U
I favor the succession for you know	D
Far more than many doctors though your doubt	J2
Is your peculiar poison I foresaw	U
Long since and I have latterly been told	J2
What moves in this commotion down below	D
To show men what it means It means the end	J2
If men whose tongues had less to say to me	D
Than had their shoulders are adept enough	W2
To know and you may pray for me or not	J2
Sir Friend Sir Dagonet	J2
	-
Sir fool you mean	G
Dagonet said and gazed on Merlin sadly	D
I'll never pray again for anything	Y
And last of all for this that you behold	J2
The smouldering faggot of unlovely bones	U
That God has given to me to call Myself	O2
When Merlin comes to Dagonet for prayer	D
It is indeed the end	J2
	-
And in the end	J2
Are more beginnings Dagonet than men	G
Shall name or know today It was the end	J2
Of Arthur's insubstantial majesty	D
When to him and his knights the Grail foreshowed	D
The quest of life that was to be the death	I
Of many and the slow discouraging	Y
Of many more Or do I err in this	U
No Dagonet replied there was a Light	D
And Galahad in the Siege Perilous	U
Alone of all on whom it fell was calm	X2
There was a Light wherein men saw themselves	U
In one another as they might become	E2
Or so they dreamed There was a long to do	D
And Gawaine of all forlorn ineligibles	U
Rose up the first and cried more lustily	D
Than any after him that he should find	D
The Grail or die for it though he did neither	D
For he came back as living and as fit	D
For new and old iniquity as ever	D
Then Lancelot came back and Bors came back	Y
Like men who had seen more than men should see	U
And still come back They told of Percival	D
Who saw too much to make of this worn life	Y2
A long necessity and of Galahad	D
Who died and is alive They all saw Something	Y
God knows the meaning or the end of it	D
But they saw Something And if I've an eye	O
Small joy has the Queen been to Lancelot	D
Since he came back from seeing what he saw	U
For though his passion hold him like hot claws	U
He's neither in the world nor out of it	D
Gawaine is king though Arthur wears the crown	G
And Gawaine's hate for Lancelot is the sword	D
That hangs by one of Merlin's fragile hairs	U
Above the world Were you to see the King	Y
The frenzy that has overthrown his wisdom	E2
Instead of him and his upheaving empire	D
Might have an end	D
	-
I came to see the King	Y
Said Merlin like a man who labors hard	D
And long with an importunate confession	G
No Dagonet you cannot tell me why	O
Although your tongue is eager with wild hope	Z2
To tell me more than I may tell myself	O2
About myself All this that was to be	U
Might show to man how vain it were to wreck	Y
The world for self if it were all in vain	G
When I began with Arthur I could see	U
In each bewildered man who dots the earth	A3
A moment with his days a groping thought	D
Of an eternal will strangely endowed	D
With merciful illusions whereby self	O2
Becomes the will itself and each man swells	U
In fond accordance with his agency	U
Now Arthur Modred Lancelot and Gawaine	G
Are swollen thoughts of this eternal will	D
Which have no other way to find the way	U
That leads them on to their inheritance	U
Than by the time infuriating flame	T2
Of a wrecked empire lighted by the torch	B3
Of woman who together with the light	D
That Galahad found is yet to light the world	D
	-
A wan smile crept across the weary face	U
Of Dagonet the fool If you knew that	D
Before your burial in Broceliande	D
No wonder your eternal will accords	U
With all your dreams of what the world requires	U
My master I may say this unto you	D
Because I am a fool and fear no man	G
My fear is that I've been a groping thought	D
That never swelled enough You say the torch	B3
Of woman and the light that Galahad found	D
Are some day to illuminate the world	D
I'll meditate on that The world is done	G
For me and I have been to make men laugh	C3
A lean thing of no shape and many capers	U
I made them laugh and I could laugh anon	G
Myself to see them killing one another	D
Because a woman with corn colored hair	D
Has pranked a man with horns 'Twas but a flash	D3
Of chance and Lancelot the other day	D
That saved this pleasing sinner from the fire	D
That she may spread for thousands Were she now	G
The cinder the King willed or were you now	G
To see the King the fire might yet go out	D
But the eternal will says otherwise	U
So be it I'll assemble certain gold	D
That I may say is mine and get myself	O2
Away from this accurst unhappy court	D
And in some quiet place where shepherd clowns	U
And cowherds may have more respondent ears	U
Than kings and kingdom builders I shall troll	D
Old men to easy graves and be a child	D
Again among the children of the earth	A3
I'll have no more kings even though I loved	D
King Arthur who is mad as I could love	L
No other man save Merlin who is dead	D
	-
Not wholly dead but old Merlin is old	D
The wizard shivered as he spoke and stared	D
Away into the sunset where he saw	U
Once more as through a cracked and cloudy glass	U
A crumbling sky that held a crimson cloud	D
Wherein there was a town of many towers	U
All swayed and shaken in a woman's hand	D
This time till out of it there spilled and flashed	D
And tumbled like loose jewels town towers and walls	U
And there was nothing but a crumbling sky	O
That made anon of black and red and ruin	G
A wild and final rain on Camelot	D
He bowed and pressed his eyes Now by my soul	D
I have seen this before all black and red	D
Like that like that like Vivian black and red	D
Like Vivian when her eyes looked into mine	G
Across the cups of gold A flute was playing	Y
Then all was black and red	D
	-
Another smile	D
Crept over the wan face of Dagonet	D
Who shivered in his turn The torch of woman	G
He muttered and the light that Galahad found	D
Will some day save us all as they saved Merlin	G
Forgive my shivering wits but I am cold	D
And it will soon be dark Will you go down	G
With me to see the King or will you not	D
If not I go tomorrow to the shepherds	U
The world is mad and I'm a groping thought	D
Of your eternal will the world and I	O
Are strangers and I'll have no more of it	D
Except you go with me to see the King	Y
	-
No Dagonet you cannot leave me now	G
Said Merlin sadly You and I are old	D
And as you say we fear no man God knows	U
I would not have the love that once you had	D
For me be fear of me for I am past	D
All fearing now But Fate may send a fly	O
Sometimes and he may sting us to the grave	E3
So driven to test our faith in what we see	U
Are you now I am coming to an end	D
As Arthur's days are coming to an end	D
To sting me like a fly I do not ask	Y
Of you to say that you see what I see	U
Where you see nothing nor do I require	D
Of any man more vision than is his	U
Yet I could wish for you a larger part	D
For your last entrance here than this you play	D
Tonight of a sad insect stinging Merlin	G
The more you sting the more he pities you	D
And you were never overfond of pity	U
Had you been so I doubt if Arthur's love	L
Or Gawaine's would have made of you a knight	D
No Dagonet you cannot leave me now	G
Nor would you if you could You call yourself	O2
A fool because the world and you are strangers	U
You are a proud man Dagonet you have suffered	D
What I alone have seen You are no fool	D
And surely you are not a fly to sting	Y
My love to last regret Believe or not	D
What I have seen or what I say to you	D
But say no more to me that I am dead	D
Because the King is mad and you are old	D
And I am older In Broceliande	D
Time overtook me as I knew he must	D
And I with a fond overplus of words	U
Had warned the lady Vivian already	D
Before these wrinkles and this hesitancy	D
Inhibiting my joints oppressed her sight	D
With age and dissolution She said once	U
That she was cold and cruel but she meant	D
That she was warm and kind and over wise	U
For woman in a world where men see not	D
Beyond themselves She saw beyond them all	D
As I did and she waited as I did	D
The coming of a day when cherry blossoms	U
Were to fall down all over me like snow	G
In springtime I was far from Camelot	D
That afternoon and I am farther now	G
From her I see no more for me to do	D
Than to leave her and Arthur and the world	D
Behind me and to pray that all be well	D
With Vivian whose unquiet heart is hungry	D
For what is not and what shall never be	D
Without her in a world that men are making	Y
Knowing not how nor caring yet to know	G
How slowly and how grievously they do it	D
Though Vivian in her golden shell of exile	D
Knows now and cares not knowing that she cares	U
Nor caring that she knows In time to be	D
The like of her shall have another name	T2
Than Vivian and her laugh shall be a fire	D
Not shining only to consume itself	O2
With what it burns She knows not yet the name	T2
Of what she is for now there is no name	T2
Some day there shall be Time has many names	U
Unwritten yet for what we say is old	D
Because we are so young that it seems old	D
And this is all a part of what I saw	U
Before you saw King Arthur When we parted	D
I told her I should see the King again	G
And having seen him might go back again	G
To see her face once more But I shall see	D
No more the lady Vivian Let her love	L
What man she may no other love than mine	G
Shall be an index of her memories	U
I fear no man who may come after me	D
And I see none I see her still in green	G
Beside the fountain I shall not go back	Y
We pay for going back and all we get	D
Is one more needless ounce of weary wisdom	E2
To bring away with us If I come not	D
The lady Vivian will remember me	D
And say I knew him when his heart was young	Y
Though I have lost him now Time called him home	F
And that was as it was for much is lost	D
Between Broceliande and Camelot '	-
	-
He stared away into the west again	G
Where now no crimson cloud or phantom town	G
Deceived his eyes Above a living town	G
There were gray clouds and ultimate suspense	U
And a cold wind was coming Dagonet	D
Now crouched at Merlin's feet in his dejection	G
Saw multiplying lights far down below	G
Where lay the fevered streets At length he felt	D
On his lean shoulder Merlin's tragic hand	D
And trembled knowing that a few more days	U
Would see the last of Arthur and the first	D
Of Modred whose dark patience had attained	D
To one precarious half of what he sought	D
And even the Queen herself may fall to him	P
Dagonet murmured The Queen fall to Modred	D
Is that your only fear tonight said Merlin	G
She may but not for long No not my fear	D
For I fear nothing But I wish no fate	D
Like that for any woman the King loves	U
Although she be the scourge and the end of him	P
That you saw coming as I see it now	G
Dagonet shook but he would have no tears	U
He swore for any king queen knave or wizard	D
Albeit he was a stranger among those	U
Who laughed at him because he was a fool	D
You said the truth I cannot leave you now	G
He stammered and was angry for the tears	U
That mocked his will and choked him	P
	-
Merlin smiled	D
Faintly and for the moment Dagonet	D
I need your word as one of Arthur's knights	U
That you will go on with me to the end	D
Of my short way and say unto no man	G
Or woman that you found or saw me here	D
No good would follow for a doubt would live	F3
Unstifled of my loyalty to him	P
Whose deeds are wrought for those who are to come	E2
And many who see not what I have seen	G
Or what you see tonight would prattle on	G
For ever and their children after them	V2
Of what might once have been had I gone down	G
With you to Camelot to see the King	Y
I came to see the King but why see kings	U
All this that was to be is what I saw	U
Before there was an Arthur to be king	Y
And so to be a mirror wherein men	G
May see themselves and pause If they see not	D
Or if they do see and they ponder not	D
I saw but I was neither Fate nor God	D
I saw too much and this would be the end	D
Were there to be end I saw myself	O2
A sight no other man has ever seen	G
And through the dark that lay beyond myself	O2
I saw two fires that are to light the world	D
	-
On Dagonet the silent hand of Merlin	G
Weighed now as living iron that held him down	G
With a primeval power Doubt wonderment	D
Impatience and a self accusing sorrow	G
Born of an ancient love possessed and held him	P
Until his love was more than he could name	T2
And he was Merlin's fool not Arthur's now	G
Say what you will I say that I'm the fool	D
Of Merlin King of Nowhere which is Here	D
With you for king and me for court what else	U
Have we to sigh for but a place to sleep	G3
I know a tavern that will take us in	G
And on the morrow I shall follow you	D
Until I die for you And when I die	D
Well Dagonet the King is listening	Y
And Dagonet answered hearing in the words	U
Of Merlin a grave humor and a sound	D
Of graver pity I shall die a fool	D
He heard what might have been a father's laugh	C3
Faintly behind him and the living weight	D
Of Merlin's hand was lifted They arose	U
And saying nothing found a groping way	D
Down through the gloom together Fiercer now	G
The wind was like a flying animal	D
That beat the two of them incessantly	D
With icy wings and bit them as they went	D
The rock above them was an empty place	U
Where neither seer nor fool should view again	G
The stricken city Colder blew the wind	D
Across the world and on it heavier lay	D
The shadow and the burden of the night	D
And there was darkness over Camelot	D
	-
THE END	D

Edwin Arlington Robinson

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