What is your favourite poem/song by Tolkien?

[Lenya]

Elemmire, that's my favourite also (check first post) It is stunning!

[Rosie Gamgee]

I have lots of favourites. I like the Lay of Luthien, especially the beginning where Luthien is being described. Great imagery throughout the lay.
In LotR, I like Bilbo's song about sitting by the fire:

I sit by the fire and think
Of times that were before.
I listen for returning feet
And voices at the door.

I also like the little song about the troll that Sam made up, and the song of the sea that Legolas sings (To the Sea, to the Sea, the White gulls are crying...), and the song Galadriel sings when the Fellowship leaves Lorien. However, my favourite poem of Tolkien's is probably the Lament for Boromir, sung by Aragorn and Legolas. I've learnt it by heart, and one of these days I'd like to set a tune to it. It's so sad, and the last lines O Boromir, the tower of guard shall ever northward gaze/ To Rauros, golden Rauros falls until the end of days have a great ring to them.

[Lenya]

Beren just died ( ):
(Children of Hurin, p 58)

... His song was shaken,
but the tears were dried in his tortured eyes
by the flames of anguish that filled his soul.

[Lenya]

I just finished Children of Hurin and it's a real bummer that it isn't finished I think i'm going to search for Tolkien Reader now, I need more poetry!

[Lenya]

Yo, if anyone knows of a stunning quote from one of his poems, Please feel free to share it!

[Telcontar_Dunedain]

I'm getting the Lays of Beleriand before the 14th of Feb so I will have more favourites then.

[Lenya]

Oh enjoy it! I'm starting to wonder if I didn't enjoy it just as much as Silm (=my favourite book).

[Lenya]

C'mon poeple. There are many poems to choose from. Does no one have another thing to add? *looks at you with puppy eyes*

[Maerbenn]

Originally Posted by Attalus

I wonder if Tolkien knew of him [Lord Dunsany]. I'll bet he did.

You are right; he mentions Dunsany in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien no. 19 (to Stanley Unwin, 16 December 1937) and in a footnote to no. 294 (to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, 8 February 1967).

According to The Annotated Hobbit by Douglas A. Anderson, the first review of the first American edition of The Hobbit was by May Lamberton Becker in the New York Herald Tribune, and the reviewer thought that “its style is not like Lewis Carroll’s; it is much more like Dunsany’s”.

[Voronwen]

The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinuviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering.

There Beren came from mountains cold,
And lost he wandered under leaves,
And where the Elven-river rolled
He walked alone and sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock-leaves
And saw in wonder flowers of gold
Upon her mantle and her sleeves,
And her hair like shadow following.

Enchantment healed his weary feet
That over hills were doomed to roam;
And forth he hastened, strong and fleet,
And grasped at moonbeams glistening.
Through woven woods in Elvenhome
She lightly fled on dancing feet,
And left him lonely still to roam
In the silent forest listening.

He heard there oft the flying sound
Of feet as light as linden-leaves,
Or music welling underground,
In hidden hollows quavering.
Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves,
And one by one with sighing sound
Whispering fell the beechen leaves
In the wintry woodland wavering.

He sought her ever, wandering far
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glinted in the moon,
As on a hill-top high and far
She danced, and at her feet was strewn
A mist of silver quivering.

When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark, and falling rain,
And melting water-bubbling.
He saw the elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again
He longed by her to dance and sing
Upon the grass untroubling.

Again she fled, but swift he came,
Tinuviel! Tinuviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell,
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinuviel
That in his arms lay glistening.

As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinuviel the elven-fair
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.

Long was the way that fate them bore
O'er stony mountains cold and grey
Through halls of iron and darkling door
And woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless.

Ever my favorite...