The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-11-15
THE PASSING OF MERLIN.
10 ALYIID rENNYSoN.

an Merlin
And am dying
am Merlin who followed the g'eamt
Tennyson's Merlin and the glesm-
Merlin has gone, has gone: and through the
The Melancholy message wings it, way
To caeeless-ordered garden by the bay
BSne Ger the narrow strait 10 island strand
Where Camelot looks down on wild Broceliand
Merlin has gone, Merlin the wizard, who found
king
As.huI great Usas.: SON an. 3D. g sa lid sing
That ever it name will live 80 long a. song
shall sound.
Merlin has gone, Merlin who followed the glsam
And made Us follow it, the living tale.
OF the last tournament. the Holy Grail,
And Arthurs passing till the enc hantress' dream
Dwells with US still awake, no visionary theme.
Today 10 dole in Astolat, and dole
In Celiion; the forest dole and tears;
In joyless garb blackhooded lean the spears:
The nuns Of Aimesbury sound . mournful toll,
And Guinevers kneeling weeps aud prays Tor
Merliu's soul
A wailing cometh from the shores that veil
Ayilions' island valley; on the mere
Looms through the mist aud wet winds weeping
dusIy barge. which without oar or sail
nor hail
OF all his wounds he Will be healed now:
Wounds of harsh time and vulnerable Life,
Fatigue OF rest 8nd WEAKNESS OF strife,
Doubt and the long deep Questioninss that
The .orenead OF age but bring no harvest to the
brow.
And there he will be comforted; but we
Must watch like Percival the dwindling light
hat Ill
From that great deep to the great deep hath he
And X now he knows, 10 mute esernally.
From somersby's ivisd tower there sinks and
A low. slow neal tha mournfully Is rolled
Over the long gray fields and glimmering void,
To where 'twixf sandy tracts and moorlSnd fills
Remembers Locksley Hall his musical farewslls
And many sinewy youth on Cam today,
Suspends the dripping oar and lets his boat
Ike dreaming water lily drift and hoat:
That haunts the babbling Wye aud ssvsrn's
dirgeful bay.
The hole OF the broad oak whose knot.ed knees
Lie hidden in the fern of Gunner Chase,
Feels stirred afresh as when Oiivia's face
Lay warm against its rind though now it secs
Not love but death approach. and shivers In the
breeze.
In many vicarage garden dense with age,
The haunt OF pairing shrostles; many grange
Moated against the assault anu siege OF chance,
Fair ewes consult anew the cherished sage.
Aud now and then . tear falls, clustering the
page.
April will blossom again. again will ring
With cuckoos' call and yaffels' flying scream
And in yelled sleep the nightingale Will dream,
Warbing as IL awake, but what will bring
His sweet note bac.f He mute. Il scarcely will
be spring.
The seasons sorruw for him and the hours
Droop like to bees belated IN the rain,
The unmoving shadows OF peusive pain
Lies on the avn and fingers on the flowers,
Aud sweet and sad seem anes In woodbtne
woven bowers.
In English gardens fr!ngei with English foam
Or gIrt " tn English woods he loved 10 dwell
SINGING o English lives In thorp or dell,
Orchard or croft. so that when now We roam
Through them and find him not, it scarcely
feels like home.
And Englsnd's sloriss stirred him. as the
OF blu.f " nds blowing from Atlantic brine,
Stirs mightier music In the murmuring pine:
Then sweet notes waxsd TOO strong within his
And orlstling rose the lines. and billowy rose
and fell
So England mourns FOR Merlin. though Its tears
Flow not from bitter source that wells in vain.
Bat kin irei rather To the ripping rain
That brings the daffodii sneatas and 1onQuli
spears
When winter wears away and April reappeara
Nor hath England lacked voice to sing
Her fairness and her fame, nor VIII she now.
Silence awhile may brood upon the Dough.
But shortly once agatn the isle VIII ring
With wakening Winds of March ami raphsodies
OF spring.
From Arthur unto Alfred, Alfred, crowned
Monarch aud minstrel both. TO EDWARDS day;
From Edward to Elisabeth's the lay
OF yalor ami love aata lever ceased TO sound
But song and sword are twin. indissosuoiy
bound.
Nor shall in Britain taiiessiu tire
Transmitting through bis stock the sacred strain
Mhen fresh senown proiongs Fic1oras reign,
Some patriot hand Will sweep the living tyre
And prove with native notes that Merlin was ri.
s.rs Alfred Aasttl