Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/277

 Ten years ago The King had heard, with unbelieving ears At first, what Merlin said would be the last Eeiteration of his going down To find a living grave in Brittany: "Buried alive I told you I should be, By love made little and by woman shorn, Like Samson, of my glory; and the time Is now at hand. I follow in the morning Where I am led. I see behind me now The last of crossways, and I see before me A straight and final highway to the end Of all my divination. You are King, And in your kingdom I am what I was. Wherever I have warned you, see as far As I have seen; for I have shown the worst There is to see. Require no more of me, For I can be no more than what I was." So, on the morrow, the King said farewell; And he was never more to Merlin's eye The King than at that hour; for Merlin knew How much was going out of Arthur's life With him, as he went southward to the sea. Over the waves and into Brittany Went Merlin, to Broceliande. Gay birds Were singing high to greet him all along A broad and sanded woodland avenue That led him on forever, so he thought, Until at last there was an end of it; And at the end there was a gate of iron, Wrought heavily and invidiously barred. He pulled a cord that rang somewhere a bell Of many echoes, and sat down to rest, Outside the keeper's house, upon a bench