Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/254

 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 fate-begotten few That all acknowledged or in envy loathed, He felt a foreign sort of creeping up And down him, as of moist things in the dark,- When Dagonet, coming on him unawares, Presuming on his title of Sir Fool, Addressed him and crooned on till he was done: "What look ye for to see, Gawaine, Gawaine?" "Sir Dagonet, you best and wariest Of all dishonest men, I look through Time, For sight of what it is that is to be. I look to see it, though I see it not. I see a town down there that holds a king, And over it I see a few small clouds Like feathers in the west, as you observe; And I shall see no more this afternoon Than what there is around us every day, Unless you have a skill that I have not To ferret the invisible for rats." "If you see what's around us every day, You need no other showing to go mad. Remember that and take it home with you; And say tonight, 'I had it of a fool With no immediate obliquity For this one or for that one, or for me.' " Gawaine, having risen, eyed the fool curiously : "I'll not forget I had it of a knight, Whose only folly is to fool himself; And as for making other men to laugh,