Mortality
This poem deals with the death of Merlin, the legendary sorcerer from the court of King Arthur. Because Merlin was known for his magical powers, it is a bit of a surprise that he could die at all. More surprising than that is the fact that he dies willingly, accepting death as a release from his responsibilities.
Merlin’s death is represented here as a form of sleep, as mentioned in stanzas five and seven. The poem does not explicitly say that he dies, but it is implied in the way that the magician’s consciousness slips away from him. The shapes of the searching men “escape” him as he loses awareness of the world. At the same time, “the mists of time condensed in the still head,” implying with his motionlessness and with the stopping of time that this is not a sleep from which he will ever emerge. The most definitive clue that Merlin is dead comes from the reaction of his comrades—especially King Arthur, who apparently senses the loss of the magic that once enabled him to pull Excalibur from the stone in which it was embedded.
The fact that Merlin goes willingly to his death can be inferred from the poem’s references to Niniane as the siren’s daughter who has bewitched him. Readers might interpret this to mean that Merlin has been tricked into accepting death, but, whether his infatuation with Niniane is natural or unnatural, he still dies peacefully. When line thirty says “this the forsaken will not understand,” it implies that Merlin, who has been accepted by Niniane (and is therefore not one of the forsaken), has knowledge that makes his death acceptable to him, even though readers and his peers in the poem might find it something against which to fight.
Mourning
Because of the magical nature of the events related in this poem, Merlin’s friends do not react to his death the way that they might in real life. This is established from the start when the knights rise up from the Round Table and go looking for Merlin. No explanation is given for why they did not move earlier or why they suddenly know it is the right time to act. Readers are presented with a magical, intuitive relationship between Merlin and the knights. The knights’ concern is evident in the third line when they “cried” his name, as if these knights who are masters of their world are panicked when they think of losing him. Riding out through the forest to find him, they are hypersensitive to the sounds and motions around them, which gives another clue to just how frightened they are at the thought of losing him.
Of all of Merlin’s associates, though, it is King Arthur who mourns Merlin most intensely and most directly. Merlin was Arthur’s guardian all his life, taking him away into hiding soon after his birth and then returning him to rule Britain when the time was right. When Merlin dies, Arthur does not see any evidence of his death, yet still he stops riding to weep. Like the others, he senses the loss of his friend and mentor. Telling Gawen that his hand is still as strong as it was long ago but that he would not now be able to pull the sword from the stone is his admission that the loss of Merlin’s magic has left him vulnerable. The fact that their armor became “quainter,” or more old-fashioned, as they rode along, gives an added dimension to the knights’ mourning, indicating that Merlin’s death has made them somewhat...
(This entire section contains 310 words.)
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self-conscious of their own eventual deaths.
Motion
Wilbur connects the concepts of time and motion, saying time and history come to an end as Merlin stops moving. It begins with meaningless action—aimless wandering—which follows after the passage of an indefinite “while.” As the knights ride through the forest, they are aware of the slightest motions, such as the actions of frog or bugs, to such an extent that when squirrels chase each other, it is described as an “alien fracas.” The exact moment of Merlin’s death is presented as a condensation of the “mists of time” as they change from a drifting vapor to a motionless solid. In the poem’s final line, as the scene of King Arthur and his knights freezes like an old picture on a tapestry, the sky itself becomes “still” and “woven,” indicating that this moment is stopped forever, while at the same time it has become part of the rich and complex weave of history.
Delusion
Much of the action in this poem depends upon the power of sorcery to delude people, just as much of the poetic effect depends upon keeping readers uncertain of the difference between delusion and reality. The knights set out on their quest with the impression that Merlin is hiding from them. In their search, “something” makes them stop. Although they cannot see him, they have a feeling they have found Merlin, and since he is able to see them, it is clear that Niniane’s sorcery has hidden him from their view. At that point, Gawen has a feeling of Niniane’s involvement in the disappearance of Merlin, a feeling that seems to come from a whitehorn deer. The poem does not specify whether Gawen’s suspicion is real or delusional.
The poem is just as vague about how much of Merlin’s experience is a delusion. He feels that he is sleeping, that Niniane is just a figment of his imagination, and that he is dreaming that she is “receiving” him as the vision of his friends in the real world slip away. These impressions are of course what she would want to bewitch him into believing. A good case can be made for interpreting this as her way of making Merlin cooperate as she lures him to his death.
