Explication of the poem "Merlin"
...or asks if a singer, or storyteller will ever sing away past sin. The author uses the word “furrow” because it not only refers to the mark that Adam made on God’s perfect world, but of the facial expression of a furrowed brow, which implies sadness. This shows the author’s intention of making of tone sad. Notice that the author asks about man’s past mistakes and sins. In the second question, the author asks if man’s current faults and sins will ever be overcome. He also asks if the past can be erased, and memories forgotten. The third question deals more with the future, and starts with the word “will”. He asks if three fairy tale conventions will ever come true. The three questions show a progression from past, to present, to future. Throughout the poem, the author uses diction that has a connotation of a fairy tale or fantasy story. Words and phrases like “Crystal cave”, “diamond”, “music”, “gate of memory”, “magic”, “sleeping bride”, “tower” are all conventions of the fairy tale. The ironic part about the author doing this is that fairy tales are not true, and are often very very far from reality. Camelot never really existed, and that Eden ever existed is debatable. The author seems want to go back to these things, even though they never empirically existed. He longs for the impossible. Many references are made to the impossible, like outrunning your own shadow, hanging an apple back on a tree, erasing the past, and stopping time. The ironic sadness of the poem is that the thing which he wants is far beyond his rea...