Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/263

 Is one for less complacent execration Than quips and innuendoes of the city Would augur for her sin if there be sin Or for her name if now she have a name. And where, I say, is this to lead the King, And after him, the kingdom and ourselves? Here be we, three men of a certain strength And some confessed intelligence, who know That Merlin has come out of Brittany Out of his grave, as he would say it for us Because the King has now a desperation More strong upon him than a woman's net Was over Merlin for now Merlin's here, And two of us who knew him know how well His wisdom, if he have it any longer, Will by this hour have sounded and appraised The grief and wrath and anguish of the King, Requiring mercy and inspiring fear Lest he forego the vigil now most urgent, And leave unwatched a cranny where some worm Or serpent may come in to speculate." "I know your worm, and his worm's name is Modred- Albeit the streets are not yet saying so," Said Lamorak, as he lowered his wrath and laughed A sort of poisonous apology To Kay : "And in the meantime, I'll be gyved Here's Bedivere a-wailing for the King, And you, Kay, with a moist eye for the Queen. I think I'll blow a horn for Lancelot ; For by my soul a man's in sorry case When Guineveres are out with eyes to scorch him: I'm not so ancient or so frozen certain That I'd ride horses down to skeletons