''Merlin'' is a dramatic narrative

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

Edwin Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Early life Robins ...

, written in 1917.

Description

The poem is entirely modern in its spirit and treatment, with lines like these that mark its date: In Robinson's poem, King Arthur and his knights are not romantic heroes, as other poets have made them, not "our conception of what knighthood should be"; they are a modern poet's conception of what leaders of men always and universally are – king, warrior, lover, fool; Arthur,

Gawaine Gawain (), also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest W ...

Lancelot Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), also written as Launcelot and other variants (such as early German ''Lanzelet'', early French ''Lanselos'', early Welsh ''Lanslod Lak'', Italian ''Lancillotto'', Spanish ''Lanzarote del Lago' ...

, Dagonet. Nor is Robinson's

Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...

like Tennyson's – a magician in his dotage falling a victim to the wiles of a false woman. He is a prophet whose "memories go forward"; he is a man "Who saw himself, A sight no other man has ever seen," and he follows Vivian, "a woman who is worth a grave," because Fate wills it so. In ''Merlin'', Robinson revivifies, not the age of chivalry, but our own time, our own double world of hope and of reality, with its loves, faith, fears, wars and failures. The philosophy of the poem, that faith and creative love will someday save the world, is a lustrous background for the story: "The torch of woman, who, together with the light That

Galahad Sir Galahad (), sometimes referred to as Galeas () or Galath (), among other versions of his name, is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend. He is the illegitimate son of S ...

found, is yet to light the world." As a tale ''Merlin'' is vivid and compelling, with scenes, like that of Merlin's first meeting with Vivian and his final parting, which rival the best in drama for beauty and intensity.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* American poems 1917 poems Works by Edwin Arlington Robinson Arthurian literature in English Works based on Merlin Modern Arthurian fiction {{poem-stub