Frank Coffman
Merlin’s Return
………….English Megasonnet, an invented form
Did the Lady of the Lake bind him in an oak?
So goes one version of the many-forkéd tale.
Or in a glowing mist that crystal tower seemed
To Myrddin, trapped inside—so some bards spoke.
So many variations we may seek to no avail.
But I shall relate the vision that I dreamed:
Seer and Shapeshifter was this Master Mage,
For a time, a Wildling who dwelt in a Magic Wood,
But druid priest, emerging as Rome was falling,
Abandoning Britain. Soon the Saxon rage
For blood and land began. He understood
And ‘sorcelled Arthur to answer his country’s calling.
As mentor to the king, he served in good stead.
But after Arthur fell and slept in Avalon,
Love smote Merlin for the enchantress named Nimue.
But unrequited was that love. And though not dead,
Merlin from this, our world, has wholly gone
Banished by sorcery—hid from earthly view.
He, like Arthur, will return in time of dread.
From spell-sealed cave, Merlin will rise too.
Then King and Mage will our needful world renew.
_______________
Frank Coffman is a retired professor of English, Creative Writing, and Journalism. He has published speculative poetry and fiction in a variety of magazines, journals, and anthologies. His four major speculative poetry collections: The Coven’s Hornbook & Other Poems (2019), Black Flames & Gleaming Shadows (2020), Eclipse of the Moon (2021), and What the Night Brings (2023). His occult detective short story collection, Three Against the Dark, was published in 2022. Member: HWA & SFPA. He established and moderates the Weird Poets Society Facebook group.
Mind’s Eye Publications: https://www.mindseyepublications.com
Blog: https://www.frankcoffman-writer.net
Frank Coffman
POETRY COLLECTIONS:
•Coffman Street: Poems for Robert E. Howard (2006)
•This Ae Nighte, Every Nighte and Alle (chapbook 2018)
•The Coven’s Hornbook & Other Poems (2019)
•Khayyám’s Rubáiyát (2019)
•Black Flames & Gleaming Shadows (2020)
•The Exorcised Lyric with Steven Withrow (March 2021)
•Eclipse of the Moon (May2021)
*What the Night Brings (August 2023)
ANTHOLOGIES FROM MIND’S EYE PUBLICATIONS
*The Gargoylicon (2022)
*The Vampiricon (2023)
*The Lycanthropicon (forthcoming 2024)
SHORT FICTION COLLECTIONS:
•Three Against the Dark
[Occult Detective Stories] (March 2022)
•Maxime Miris: 15 Tales of Horror, the Weird,
and the Supernatural (forthcoming 2024)
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP:
•Robert E. Howard: Selected Poems (2007)
•”Texas Talespinner:
Robert E. Howard’s Ways With Words”
[in TWO-GUN BOB (2006)]
•”Barbarism Ascendant:
The Poetic and Epistolary
Origins of Conan and Cimmeria”
[in CONAN MEETS THE ACADEMY (2019)]
WRITER’S HOME PAGE: http://www.frankcoffman-writer.net
EMail: fcoffman@comcast.net
•Journ-E: The Journal of Imaginative Literature
from MIND’S EYE PUBLICATIONS ™
(vol. 2, no. 2 (MARCH 2023)
Author’s Notes and Backstory: The genesis of this poem likely has at least three roots: first, my love of the Arthurian/Merlin material and the various legends about the character of the wizard (Vita Merlini, Tennyson, Malory, etc.); second, my desire to include some Fantasy poems in my forthcoming collection (Borderlands—planned for release in late 2025), and get “away” from the bulk of weird, supernatural, horrific stuff of my usual mode [I plan on including some sci-fi, adventure, and even detection poems in the book]; third, my usual Form-Before-Content mode of poetic creation, using my invented pattern of what I call the “megasonnet” (various expansions of the quatorzain into 21 line poems—reversing, in effect, G. M. Hopkins mathematical “reduction” of the sonnet into the “curtal sonnet” [ratio of 6:4.5 the same as the 8:6 of the Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet]. The “megasonnet” expands the ratio into 12:9 (or 6:6:6:3, etc.) resulting in 21-line forms. So, I had the pattern of the poem in mind and needed to “fill” it with content—knowing my topic would be Merlin. As I say in one of my poems, thinking of poetry as a fluid thing: “and liquid fills the shape it’s poured into.”
Editor’s Comments and Image Citations: Information footnoted with the poem not replicated above is about the rhyme scheme for the “Italian Megasonnet” is abccbaabccba cdecdecde The rhyme scheme for the “English Megasonnet” (as above) is: abcabc defdef ghighi gii [note: the last three could also be a triplet: jjj or any form of jxj where x is any of the final three rhymes of the last sexain: g, h, or i. —or it could use any combination of the last sexains three lines (as in this poem).
Concerning the artwork: The Lady of the Lake (French: Dame du Lac, Demoiselle du Lac, Welsh: Arglwyddes y Llyn, Cornish: Arlodhes an Lynn, Breton: Itron al Lenn, Italian: Dama del Lago) is a title used by multiple characters in the Matter of Britain, the body of medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of King Arthur. As either actually fairy or fairy-like yet human enchantresses, they play important roles in various stories, notably by providing Arthur with the sword Excalibur, eliminating the wizard Merlin, raising the knight Lancelot after the death of his father, and helping to take the dying Arthur to Avalon after his final battle. Different Ladies of the Lake appear concurrently as separate characters in some versions of the legend since at least the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently the seminal Le Morte d’Arthur, with the latter describing them as members of a hierarchical group, while some texts also give this title to either Morgan or her sister. (Excerpted from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Lake). Image credit: The illustration on the title page of the book— Lady of the Lake. Speed Lancelot (1860-1931) – The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights, 1912., 9th edition. Ed. Sir James Knowles, K. C. V. O. London; New York: Frederick Warne and Co., 1912.