Poetry Corner: Tolkien Reading Day

March 25th is here: Tolkien Reading Day! I’ll be celebrating this year by continuing to read through The Two Towers. It’s taking a bit longer this time through, since I’ve been busy, as well as tied up with several other great reads! But I’m enjoying taking it slow. I’ve been able to notice more details, especially discovering some of the lovely poems and songs hidden within the story. Today, I’d like to share one that Bilbo recites in Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring. I don’t ever remember reading it before, and it brought little tears to my eyes. Enjoy!

“I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times that were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Happy Tolkien Reading Day!