Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/330

 That you will go on with me to the end Of my short way, and say unto no man Or woman that you found or saw me here. No good would follow, for a doubt would live Unstifled of my loyalty to him Whose deeds are wrought for those who are to come; And many who see not what I have seen, Or what you see tonight, would prattle on For ever, and their children after them, Of what might once have been had I gone down With you to Camelot to see the King. I came to see the King, but why see kings? All this that was to be is what I saw Before there was an Arthur to be king, And so to be a mirror wherein men May see themselves, and pause. If they see not, Or if they do see and they ponder not, I saw; but I was neither Fate nor God. I saw too much; and this would be the end, Were there to be an end. I saw myself A sight no other man has ever seen; And through the dark that lay beyond myself I saw two fires that are to light the world." On Dagonet the silent hand of Merlin Weighed now as living iron that held him down With a primeval power. Doubt, wonderment, Impatience, and a self-accusing sorrow Born of an ancient love, possessed and held him Until his love was more than he could name, And he was Merlin's fool, not Arthur's now: "Say what you will, I say that I'm the fool Of Merlin, King of Nowhere; which is Here. With you for king and me for court, what else Have we to sigh for but a place to sleep?