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The Grey Elf
Grey Havens
Sep 3 2013, 3:38pm
Post #1 of 41
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What's Your Pulse on Poetry?
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Time to 'fess -- what are your real feelings about the art form of metered words? And if you have a Middle Earth muse and enjoy grabbing a quill to pen some verse now and then, by all means feel free to share below! For the shy, I'll get things started by being the first:
Behold me, a worldly patron of gourmand taste,
Any dish, any drink, enjoy I any place.
Food's my savory sovereign,
Ahem, well after great Thorin,
Tis true I've more of an equator than a waist.
"Bombur" 8.19.13 - 15B
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Rembrethil
Tol Eressea
Sep 3 2013, 4:38pm
Post #2 of 41
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"Poetry"
I think that measured words
Are quite apt tools to serve
The purpose of the heart
And though we be apart
Carries us sweet song of birds
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RosieLass
Valinor
Sep 3 2013, 4:55pm
Post #3 of 41
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Unfortunately, I don't really understand it.
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I hate reading poetry. I'm trying so hard to make it rhyme and fit a rhythm that I just can't seem to grasp what it's saying.
I like to hear it read, though.
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RosieLass
Valinor
Sep 3 2013, 4:55pm
Post #4 of 41
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And yes, I have to force myself to read Tolkien's poetry. //
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Lightfoot
Rivendell
Sep 3 2013, 5:21pm
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And am always a little disappointed that so many people skip of the poems in Tolkien's works. When it is well written, it is excellent and I will devour it, but when it is not... well then there is no point in reading it!
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The Grey Elf
Grey Havens
Sep 3 2013, 7:21pm
Post #6 of 41
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LOL - unfortunately, you need to read it first before deciding whether it's worth reading or not //
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Elizabeth
Half-elven
Sep 3 2013, 7:36pm
Post #7 of 41
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Great poetry creates images and comments on life in new and different ways. Some forms of poetry include rhyme schemes, which are a form of discipline that the poet uses rather like a musician uses forms (e.g., verse/chorus) to aid in communication, but not all.
I recently re-discovered this magnificent poem in the discussion of Seamus Heaney's recent death. To me, its imagery and message come through loud and clear!
Tolkien's poetry is a mixed bag: some trivial, some superb. I tend to skip the hobbit walking songs, etc., but marvel at a few brilliant examples, such as:
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?
Does this not create images of a primitive but beautiful society of the past?
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Darkstone
Immortal
Sep 3 2013, 7:58pm
Post #8 of 41
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As Billy Collins put it:
the trouble with poetry is
that it encourages the writing of more poetry,
more guppies crowding the fish tank,
more baby rabbits
hopping out of their mothers into the dewy grass.
And how will it ever end?
unless the day finally arrives
when we have compared everything in the world
to everything else in the world,
and there is nothing left to do
but quietly close our notebooks
and sit with our hands folded on our desks.
Poetry fills me with joy
and I rise like a feather in the wind.
Poetry fills me with sorrow
and I sink like a chain flung from a bridge.
But mostly poetry fills me
with the urge to write poetry,
to sit in the dark and wait for a little flame
to appear at the tip of my pencil.
You got it, Billy.
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malickfan
Gondor
Sep 3 2013, 8:00pm
Post #9 of 41
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Funnily Enough, Tolkien's poetry accounts for the majority of that I have read or enjoyed
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I never particularly 'got' or enjoyed Poetry growing up, and when I started to read Tolkien's books I had already been pre warned that his poetry was boring or difficult, and whilst his poems (and songs) are a mixed bag (and the reliance on rhyme comes across as tacky at points), in general I found his somewhat archaic style deeply evocative, unlike anything I had been exposed to before (granted I had previously only really read poems at school, and I guess a choice is a bit different) and another fascinatng layer to the books, and often an intriguing glance at the cultures of M.E. Regardless of the Technical defects of Tolkien's poems, there really are many gems for me, over the years I've begun to appreciate them more and more as another facet to a unique author.
I particularly like:
Errantry
Mythopeia
The Last Ship
Kortirion amongst the Trees
The Last Ark
Far Over the Misty Moutains Cold
The City of Present Sorrow
Bilbo's Last Song
The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun
But each to their own
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CuriousG
Half-elven
Sep 3 2013, 8:03pm
Post #10 of 41
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Somewhat similar to Galadriel's message to Aragorn
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with the first line. And the last line always gives me the creeps.
"Where now are the Dúnedain, Elessar, Elessar?
Why do thy kinsfolk wander afar?
Near is the hour when the Lost should come forth,
And the Grey Company ride form the North,
But dark is the path appointed to thee:
The Dead watch the road that leads to the Sea."
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The Grey Elf
Grey Havens
Sep 3 2013, 8:23pm
Post #11 of 41
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I'm thrilled to find poetry actually being discussed -- just don't forget to vote! :-). //
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RosieLass
Valinor
Sep 3 2013, 8:44pm
Post #12 of 41
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That's why I struggle with it.
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In my mind, poetry is rhyming iambic pentameter, and I can't help trying to read it that way.
That's why I like poetry read aloud by someone else much better.
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Patty
Immortal
Sep 3 2013, 9:33pm
Post #13 of 41
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That initially I skipped Tolkien poetry too. Then one day, I actually sat down and started reading some of it. It tells so much and is so evocative, that I'm glad I got around to it. But I still dislike other poetry.
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Brethil
Half-elven
Sep 3 2013, 10:07pm
Post #14 of 41
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...and I like writing my own as well. Not all of it for public consumption, I have lots and lots just in a folder or on my hard drive.
This bit you wrote here Grey Elf is a great bit of fun! So in character for Bombur!
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Elizabeth
Half-elven
Sep 3 2013, 10:31pm
Post #15 of 41
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Poetry is a lot more than that.
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By limiting your concept of poetry, you're missing a lot of wonderful stuff. Surely you don't limit your concept of music to one single rhythmic pattern? Or insist that photographs are only black-and-white? Can you not see the awesome imagery in the Heaney poem, which has no regular meter?
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Elizabeth
Half-elven
Sep 3 2013, 10:34pm
Post #16 of 41
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You might like some other poetry if you read it thoughtfully, as well. I think sometimes schools err in forcing kids to read poetry too young, and they learn to hate it for the same reason they hate eating spinach and other things that are "good for you". As you become more mature, you can begin to see the value in some things you hated as a child. Even spinach can be delicious.
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RosieLass
Valinor
Sep 3 2013, 10:35pm
Post #17 of 41
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All I'm saying is that I can't *read* poetry.
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It's too much of a struggle and I don't enjoy it.
I can appreciate it much better when I hear it.
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Patty
Immortal
Sep 3 2013, 10:57pm
Post #18 of 41
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Cooked that is. It has such a bitter taste. It would probably be great chopped up and put inside of meatloaf with lots of gravy though.
But poetry is too much work. I don't think I would ever enjoy it, even if I hadn't had to work at it in school.]
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demnation
Rohan
Sep 3 2013, 11:07pm
Post #19 of 41
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having no real appreciation for poetry in general. Where Tolkien is concerned, I learned my lesson when I realized that you miss so much of the story when you don't read the poems or songs. Hopefully this realization will lead me to a broader appreciation.
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Magpie
Immortal
Sep 3 2013, 11:18pm
Post #20 of 41
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the options are kind of limited
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It's either love it ('It rocks'), write it, or not so fond of it.
There has to be some middle ground in there somewhere, right?
I particularly like Haiku.
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Elizabeth
Half-elven
Sep 3 2013, 11:21pm
Post #21 of 41
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It's best with lots of garlic. :-)
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It's the "work" that takes the fun out of poetry. That's the mistake that schools make. Forget all that! You don't have to identify all the symbols, diagram the rhythm or rhyming structure, or any of the other tedious things your teacher may have forced you to do. If it's a good poem, you can just read it (or listen to it, like RosieLass) and let it flow over you.
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Patty
Immortal
Sep 3 2013, 11:23pm
Post #22 of 41
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It's kind of like how I feel about Opera…
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I just wanted tell them to stop all the singing and let me hear the music!
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The Grey Elf
Grey Havens
Sep 4 2013, 12:21am
Post #23 of 41
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The "shrug" option was intended to be middle of the road but I could have made that clearer. Hey, I never said I could write prose! 
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Elizabeth
Half-elven
Sep 4 2013, 1:49am
Post #25 of 41
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The problem with the "shrug" option
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...is that it includes skipping Tolkien's poetry! I suppose I'm sort of middle myself: I don't go out and buy books of poetry, but sometimes I encounter poems that are just wonderful. And I do skip some of Tolkien's poetry, but adore some, as well.
(This post was edited by Elizabeth on Sep 4 2013, 1:49am)
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