The Once and Never King
A poem of Arthurian legend
This poem was originally published in Volume 21 of The Rialto Books Review as “The Once and Future King.”
King Arthur, wounded mortal, gravely went
Beside the sea, his armor badly rent,
To wait the ship to carry ‘cross the waves
And in his final hour the king to save.
Three maidens fair appeared, dread queens so bright,
Astride the prow, the ship as dark as night.
Them Arthur knew and knew their fateful quest
To sail to Avalon and healing rest
To wait on western shores and bide his time
Until the circled span of time did rhyme.
And there he labored alone in the wild
And built a castle, stone on great stone piled,
And in the hall a rounded table stood
At which he sat, an empty bier of wood
Like that of yore but chairs without their names
Deprived of all those knights honored in fame.
There Arthur waited on his stonework throne
For knights to call and tell stories unknown.
But no new knight came to that quiet hall,
A silent coffered tomb clothed in a pall
Of darkness as the dripping candles dimmed
Beside the cup untouched filled to the brim.
The knights he knew were gone across the sea,
Brave men of Albion, all dead and free.
Gareth, Gaheris, brothers brave and bold,
Whom Launcelot’s grim lance did lay out cold
When they for Arthur’s faithless queen had fought
To stop the great betrayal he had wrought.
Gawain, King Arthur’s sister-son so true,
him faithless, traitorous Launcelot slew.
And Launcelot himself at final stage
A hermit died of undeserved old age.
Good Lucan died defending noble king,
One martyr more in service to the ring.
With sword and lance and bloody shining steel
Did chivalry and honor their fate seal.
The greedy Bedivere, the oath he swore
At last upheld, a knight he was no more,
And hoped that penitence before the end
By penury austere might him attend.
Alone of all, one knight noble and grave
By God’s good grace and pious virtue saved,
Pure Galahad winning the Holy Grail
To heaven went beyond this mortal veil.
So throneless Arthur king did wander then
From empty castle halls upon the fen
Beset with flies and cold, a deathly place,
A marsh through which he passed without a trace
To haunt the woods abandoned by those three,
And savor shadows shuffling tree to tree
Shunned by Queen Viviane and Morgan Fay
And Queen of Northgales, him their helpless prey.
With sickly crows and vultures grim behind,
Black trees ahead and blackest thoughts in mind,
Arthur discovered Avalon’s true heart,
The cunning cage of deadly cunning art
There built that empty ocean-laden ring
Ever to hold the Once and Never King.
Meter: iambic pentameter
Rhyme: couplets
Disclaimer: This is an original composition. No AI of any kind, generative or otherwise, was used in any way to write this poem.