Poem – Merlin and Vivien

Well hello there! I’m so glad you’re back again to read another one of my posts… It really does mean a lot to me that so many of you read faithfully every week and comment and interact with me on here! I love sharing my writing with y’all! 🙂 

Today I’m sharing a poem that I wrote a couple of weeks back. First of all, I need to give some background info… So for my English class recently, I read Idylls of the King by Lord Alfred Tennyson. It is written in blank verse, and consists of 12 poems, each telling a different story that make up the grand overall story. For any of you that don’t know what this book is about, it’s basically the story of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. It starts off great – loads of brave knights, love-lorn women and daring deeds. Unfortunately, Guinevere, Arthur’s wife, begins an affair with Arthur’s right hand knight, Lancelot. From then on, things kind of go downhill, and *spoiler alert!* end up with Camelot completely falling apart. So it’s kind of a depressing book, but it’s also really beautifully written and it has some very interesting stories in it! One such story is found in the poem called ‘Merlin and Vivien’ which aptly tells the story of the great wizard Merlin and a beautiful but evil enchantress named Vivien. Vivien’s husband basically sends her to infiltrate Arthur’s court by using her devious charms to try and turn things sour. Vivien sets her sights on Merlin, and well… I’ll let the poem tell you the rest. 😉 I hope you enjoy it! 

~

I whisper of rumours

Throughout the halls

Scandals and disgrace

Bounce off of the walls 

 

I delight in revenge

I long for the day

When Merlin the wizard

Will give his secret away

 

I follow my Merlin

Over the silver sea

Scheming to coerce him

To tell his secret to me

 

He laughs at my cunning

He pushes me away

None of my trying

Will convince him to sway

 

My flattery does nothing

To pierce his wrinkled heart

His hoary grey beard

Deflects my sharp dart

 

I twine like a snake

Round his legs like a tree

Whispering and cajoling

“Tell thy secret to me!”

 

But Merlin stands strong

He deflects every dart

Instead turning them back

To pierce my own heart

 

He has told me the story

About his secret of old

Of how to turn a person

Into a statue cold

 

How I long for this knowledge

And the power it brings

But I dig down deep

And come up with nothing

 

No words pass his lips

My schemes are at an end

I have tried everything

And still Merlin will not bend

 

My heart grows warm

With the wrath inside

The power of a longing

That will not be denied

 

So I do what I do best

And let words bubble out

Like scathing hot lava

I throw rumours about

 

Throwing dirt on the King

And his fair Queen and his knights

I tell scandalous stories

That wound with every bite

 

Flattery does not work

But false rumours will

I’m done with the hunt

I’m moving in for the kill

 

Merlin deflects

Every rumour with ease

Putting the wrong to right

He tries to make peace

 

But now it is time

To make my last move

With sobbing and tears

My love do I prove

 

Standing in the thunderstorm

I call for death to end

My poor worthless life

For Merlin I cannot befriend

 

I am not a woman for nothing

I am an enchantress

His heart begins to melt

Beneath my display of distress

 

Merlin opens his arms

And makes me a deal

 “Cease thy weeping and wailing

And my secret I shall reveal.”

 

Revenge is so near

I can nearly taste it

I listen breathlessly

To Merlin’s secret

 

Then I smile with glee

And at once begin

To pace and to place

The spell upon him

 

Now he sleeps as one dead

In a hollow oak tree

Where no one can find him

No one except me

 

I laugh at his plight

For now I do fully rule

Over the great wizard

Who is also a great fool

~

What do you think? It’s rather a dramatic and depressing ending, but that’s the way Tennyson wrote it. 😀 I quite enjoyed my foray into writing a rhyming poem – I haven’t done too much of that in the past. Perhaps I shall try it out some more sometime!