Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/256

 A mighty scythe, and some day all your peace Goes down before its edge like so much clover. No, it is not for peace that Merlin comes, Without a trumpet and without a beard, If what you say men say of him be true Nor yet for sudden war." Gawaine, for a moment, Met then the ambiguous gaze of Dagonet, And, making nothing of it, looked abroad As if at something cheerful on all sides, And back again to the fool's unasking eyes : "Well, Dagonet, if Merlin would have peace, Let Merlin stay away from Brittany," Said he, with admiration for the man Whom Folly called a fool: "And we have known him; We knew him once when he knew everything." "He knew as much as God would let him know Until he met the lady Vivian. I tell you that, for the world knows all that; Also it knows he told the King one day That he was to be buried, and alive, In Brittany; and that the King should see The face of him no more. Then Merlin sailed Away to Yivian in Broceliande, Where now she crowns him and herself with flowers And feeds him fruits and wines and many foods Of many savors, and sweet ortolans. Wise books of every lore of every land Are there to fill his days, if he require them, And there are players of all instruments Flutes, hautboys, drums, and viols ; and she sings To Merlin, till he trembles in her arms