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    A Study Guide for Richard Wilbur's "Merlin Enthralled"
    A Study Guide for Richard Wilbur's "Merlin Enthralled"
    A Study Guide for Richard Wilbur's "Merlin Enthralled"
    Ebook34 pages24 minutes

    A Study Guide for Richard Wilbur's "Merlin Enthralled"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Richard Wilbur's "Merlin Enthralled," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 26, 2016
    ISBN9781535828536
    A Study Guide for Richard Wilbur's "Merlin Enthralled"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Richard Wilbur's "Merlin Enthralled" - Gale

      1

      Merlin Enthralled

      Richard Wilbur

      1956

      Introduction

      Merlin Enthralled is from Richard Wilbur’s 1956 poetry collection Things of This World, a book that was awarded both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. The poem offers a new look at the ancient legend of Merlin, the magician who served as counselor to the legendary King Arthur of England. The episode that Wilbur recounts is from the end of Merlin’s life when he falls under a spell cast by Niniane, a sorceress who lulls him to sleep. In most versions, this story ends with Merlin trapped within a tree or cave or tomb where he slowly wastes away in an agonizing death, but, in Wilbur’s poem, Merlin lies peacefully beside a lake, becoming one with nature as he dies.

      Among this poem’s noteworthy aspects is the way it modernizes a traditional story dating back almost a millennium. Arthur, Gawen, and the other knights, who have stood for centuries as figures of military force, are shown to be almost childlike when they cannot find Merlin, while the sorcerer himself seems to be released, rather than captured, by Niniane (the medieval sense of the word enthrall entailed holding one in slavery). Wilbur’s use of formal elements of rhyme and meter links this work with centuries of poetic tradition, but he uses enough verbal flexibility to make this formal structure nearly inconspicuous. Merlin Enthralled is generally considered to be one of the best of Richard Wilbur’s early poems, a standout in a career that has lasted for more than fifty years.

      Author Biography

      Richard Purdy Wilbur was born March 1, 1921, in New York, New York, into a family of writers and artists. His mother’s father and grandfather were newspaper editors, and Wilbur’s father was a commercial artist in New York. When Wilbur entered Amherst College in 1938, he studied to become a newspaper editor himself, spending summers travelling the country in boxcars. In college, his writing was mostly prose, with a focus on essays and editorials. After graduation, he served in Europe during World

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