Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/268

 Today, or say so much to me, and live. But you are Merlin still, or part of him; I did you wrong when I thought otherwise, And I am sorry now. Say what you will. We are alone, and I shall be alone As long as Time shall hide a reason here For me to stay in this infested world Where I have sinned and erred and heeded not Your counsel; and where you yourself—God save us!— Have gone down smiling to the smaller life That you and your incongruous laughter called Your living grave. God save us all, Merlin, When you, the seer, the founder, and the prophet, May throw the gold of your immortal treasure Back to the God that gave it, and then laugh Because a woman has you in her arms. . . Why do you sting me now with a small hive Of words that are all poison ? I do not ask Much honey; but why poison me for nothing, And with a venom that I know already As I know crowns and wars? Why tell a king— A poor, foiled, flouted, miserable king That if he lets rats eat his fingers off He'll have no fingers to fight battles with? I know as much as that, for I am still A king who thought himself a little less Than God ; a king who built him palaces On sand and mud, and hears them crumbling now, And sees them tottering, as he knew they must. You are the man who made me to be King— Therefore, say anything." Merlin, stricken deep With pity that was old, being born of old Foreshadowings, made answer to the King: