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MERLIN




  BY THE SAME AUTHOR

  _POEMS_

  CAPTAIN CRAIG
  THE CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT
  THE TOWN DOWN THE RIVER
  THE MAN AGAINST THE SKY

  _PLAYS_

  VAN ZORN. A Comedy in Three Acts
  THE PORCUPINE. A Drama in Three Acts




  MERLIN

  _A Poem_


  BY EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON


  New York
  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
  1917
  _All rights reserved_




  COPYRIGHT, 1917,
  By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

  Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1917.


  Norwood Press
  J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
  Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.




To GEORGE BURNHAM




MERLIN


I

  "Gawaine, Gawaine, what look ye for to see,
  So far beyond the faint edge of the world?
  D'ye look to see the lady Vivian,
  Pursued by divers ominous vile demons
  That have another king more fierce than ours?
  Or think ye that if ye look far enough
  And hard enough into the feathery west
  Ye'll have a glimmer of the Grail itself?
  And if ye look for neither Grail nor lady,
  What look ye for to see, Gawaine, Gawaine?"
  So Dagonet, whom Arthur made a knight
  Because he loved him as he laughed at him,
  Intoned his idle presence on a day
  To Gawaine, who had thought himself alone,
  Had there been in him thought of anything
  Save what was murmured now in Camelot
  Of Merlin's hushed and all but unconfirmed
  Appearance out of Brittany. It was heard
  At first there was a ghost in Arthur's palace,
  But soon among the scullions and anon
  Among the knights a firmer credit held
  All tongues from uttering what all glances told--
  Though not for long. Gawaine, this afternoon,
  Fearing he might say more to Lancelot
  Of Merlin's rumor-laden resurrection
  Than Lancelot would have an ear to cherish,
  Had sauntered off with his imagination
  To Merlin's Rock, where now there was no Merlin
  To meditate upon a whispering town
  Below him in the silence.--Once he said
  To Gawaine: "You are young; and that being so,
  Behold the shining city of our dreams
  And of our King."--"Long live the King," said Gawaine.--
  "Long live the King," said Merlin after him;
  "Better for me that I shall not be King;
  Wherefore I say again, Long live the King,
  And add, God save him, also, and all kings--
  All kings and queens. I speak in general.
  Kings have I known that were but weary men
  With no stout appetite for more than peace
  That was not made for them."--"Nor were they made
  For kings," Gawaine said, laughing.--"You are young
  Gawaine, and you may one day hold the world
  Between your fingers, knowing not what it is
  That you are holding. Better for you and me,
  I think, that we shall not be kings."

                                      Gawaine,
  Remembering Merlin's words of long ago,
  Frowned as he thought, and having frowned again,
  He smiled and threw an acorn at a lizard:
  "There's more afoot and in the air to-day
  Than what is good for Camelot. Merlin
  May or may not know all, but he said well
  To say to me that he would not be King.
  No more would I be King." Far down he gazed
  On Camelot, until he made of it
  A phantom town of many stillnesses,
  Not reared for men to dwell in, or for kings
  To reign in, without omens and obscure
  Familiars to bring terror to their days;
  For though a knight, and one as hard at arms
  As any, save the