Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/323

 "No," Dagonet replied; "there was a Light; And Galahad, in the Siege Perilous, Alone of all on whom it fell, was calm; There was a Light wherein men saw themselves In one another as they might become Or so they dreamed. There was a long to-do, And Gawaine, of all forlorn ineligibles, Rose up the first, and cried more lustily Than any after him that he should find The Grail, or die for it, though he did neither; For he came back as living and as fit For new and old iniquity as ever... Then Lancelot came back, and Bors came back, Like men who had seen more than men should see, And still come back. They told of Percival Who saw too much to make of this worn life A long necessity, and of Galahad, Who died and is alive. They all saw Something. God knows the meaning or the end of it, But they saw Something. And if I've an eye, Small joy has the Queen been to Lancelot Since he came back from seeing what he saw; For though his passion hold him like hot claws, He's neither in the world nor out of it. Gawaine is king, though Arthur wears the crown; And Gawaine's hate for Lancelot is the sword That hangs by one of Merlin's fragile hairs Above the world. Were you to see the King, The frenzy that has overthrown his wisdom, Instead of him and his upheaving empire, Might have an end." "I came to see the King," Said Merlin, like a man who labors hard And long with an importunate confession.