Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Richard Wilbur’s "Merlin Enthralled" draws readers into a world of Arthurian mysticism and melancholy, depicting the fabled Merlin?s enchantment by the Siren?s daughter, Nimue, and the subsequent unraveling of history and purpose. Wilbur’s poem operates on both a literal and symbolic level, exploring themes of enchantment, the passage of time, and the tension between action and repose.

The poem begins with a sense of absence and searching. The knights, having risen and left their “drained cups on the table round,” ride out “aimlessly,” their cries of “Merlin, Merlin” echoing their growing disorientation and loss. The round table, emblematic of their once-cohesive fellowship, now seems hollow, a drained vessel. Wilbur sets the tone with an eerie quiet: “In all the world was no unnatural sound.” This absence of magic hints at a shift from a mythic realm into a more mundane, desacralized reality.

The natural world becomes a focal point, as the riders move “glade by glade,” observed by “Mystery,” which “watched them.” Wilbur’s description of the forest imbues it with a sentient, enigmatic quality, though this mystery remains aloof. The men perceive the forest’s “darkle” under “leafy brows,” but its voice is reduced to the rustle of leaves and the “alien fracas” of squirrels. The contrast between the knights’ longing for the supernatural and the forest’s mundane sounds underscores their estrangement from the world of magic.

The scene by the lake-edge furthers this theme of disillusionment. The knights stop, perhaps sensing something extraordinary, but their discovery is merely natural phenomena—frogs, bugs, algae. These images emphasize the quiet erosion of the mythic, as the extraordinary is supplanted by the ordinary. Yet, for Gawen, there remains a lingering connection to the supernatural: he believes he hears the name “Niniane,” spoken by a hawthorn tree. This moment bridges the natural and the supernatural, introducing the Siren’s daughter who ensnares Merlin.

Nimue, or Niniane, is central to the poem’s symbolic and narrative arc. She embodies the allure of dreams and the power of imagination, her voice described as “like dark diving water.” Wilbur ties her to elemental imagery—water and the “unsoundable swell”—presenting her as an irresistible force, born of Merlin’s own mind yet transcending him. The line “Merlin slept, who had imagined her” encapsulates the paradox of her existence: a creation of the sorcerer’s imagination who ultimately becomes his captor. This suggests a broader commentary on the relationship between creator and creation, as well as the seductive power of one’s own dreams.

Merlin’s entrapment is described with a blend of physical and metaphysical imagery. He lies “within her towering spell,” a prisoner of both her magic and his own desire to dream. The poem shifts into a meditation on time and history as Merlin’s dream deepens. The men searching for him fade from his awareness, and “History died; he gathered in its forces.” This line suggests that Merlin, as a figure representing mythic knowledge and foresight, ceases to be an active participant in history, instead becoming a vessel of its accumulated wisdom. The imagery of “mists of time” condensing in his “still head” portrays him as a timeless figure, suspended in a state of eternal reflection.

The final stanzas return to the knights, particularly Arthur, who is overwhelmed by grief and nostalgia. Arthur’s lament—“Remember when this hand / Once haled a sword from stone”—evokes the glory of his past achievements, now rendered impotent by the loss of Merlin and the fading of the supernatural. His inability to “dream of such a thing to do” signals a shift from the active pursuit of destiny to passive resignation. The imagery of their mail becoming “quainter” and the sky turning into a “still and woven blue” underscores the inexorable passage of time and the transformation of the knights from heroes of legend into relics of a bygone era.

Wilbur’s language throughout the poem is richly evocative, blending archaic diction with precise natural imagery. The rhyme scheme, though subtle, lends the poem a formal elegance, echoing the structured world of Arthurian legend even as that world unravels. The measured cadence reflects the slow, inevitable progression toward Merlin’s enchantment and the knights’ despair.

At its core, "Merlin Enthralled" explores the tension between the active pursuit of greatness and the seductive pull of dreams and stasis. Merlin’s enchantment can be read as both a personal tragedy and a metaphor for the decline of the Arthurian age, as the knights’ sense of purpose dissolves in the absence of their guiding sorcerer. The poem’s closing image of the still, woven sky encapsulates its meditative tone, suggesting a world suspended between the mythic past and the prosaic present. Wilbur’s intricate weaving of imagery, symbolism, and narrative invites readers to reflect on the nature of enchantment, the passage of time, and the fragile boundary between reality and dream.

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