Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/261

 That we had said were castles and high towers Till Merlin, or the spirit of him, came As the dead come in dreams. I saw the King This morning, and I saw his face. Therefore, I tell you, if a state shall have a king, The king must have the state, and be the state; ? Or then shall we have neither king nor state, But bones and ashes, and high towers all fallen: And we shall have, where late there was a kingdom, A dusty wreck of what was once a glory A wilderness whereon to crouch and mourn And moralize, or else to build once more For something better or for something worse. Therefore again, I say that Lancelot Has wrought a potent wrong upon the King, And all who serve and recognize the King, And all who follow him and all who love him. Whatever the stormy faults he may have had, To look on him today is to forget them; And if it be too late for sorrow now To save him for it was a broken man I saw this morning, and a broken king The God who sets a day for desolation Will not forsake him in Avilion, Or whatsoever shadowy land there be Where peace awaits him on its healing shores."  Sir Lamorak, shifting in his oaken chair,  Growled like a dog and shook himself like one:  "For the stone-chested, helmet-cracking knight That you are known to be from Lyonnesse To northward, Bedivere, you fol-de-rol When days are rancid, and you fiddle-faddle More like a woman than a man with hands Fit for the smiting of a crazy giant