Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/255

 And so forget their sins and selves a little, There's no great folly there. So keep it up, As long as you've a legend or a song, And have whatever sport of us you like Till havoc is the word and we fall howling. For I've a guess there may not be so loud A sound of laughing here in Camelot When Merlin goes again to his gay grave In Brittany. To mention lesser terrors, Men say his beard is gone." "Do men say that?" A twitch of an impatient weariness Played for a moment over the lean face Of Dagonet, who reasoned inwardly: "The friendly zeal of this inquiring knight Will overtake his tact and leave it squealing, One of these days." Gawaine looked hard at him: "If I be too familiar with a fool, I'm on the way to be another fool," He mused, and owned a rueful qualm within him : "Yes, Dagonet," he ventured, with a laugh, "Men tell me that his beard has vanished wholly, And that he shines now as the Lord's anointed, And wears the valiance of an ageless youth Crowned with a glory of eternal peace." Dagonet, smiling strangely, shook his head: "I grant your valiance of a kind of youth To Merlin, but your crown of peace I question; For, though I know no more than any churl Who pinches any chambermaid soever In the King's palace, I look not to Merlin For peace, when out of his peculiar tomb - He comes again to Camelot. Time swings