Kelly is an instructor of creative writing and literature at Oakton Community College. In this essay, Kelly examines "Merlin Enthralled" as an independent work which can be understood and appreciated with little knowledge of Arthurian legend.

Arthurian legend is so old that there is no way of verifying the truth of any of it. It would be silly for a literary critic to say that one author is lying or mistaken because his or her version of the story does not match a version that some other author previously made up. In his poem "Merlin Enthralled," Richard Wilbur tells a story that has often been told over the last thousand years or so. It may help readers somewhat to understand how Wilbur's version relates to other versions—to the original source recorded in the twelfth century by Geoffrey of Monmouth, or Alfred, Lord Tennyson's version, or Edgar...