Tolkien's Poetry

 I've just finished a re-read of 'Lord of the Rings'.
As I get older, I find that I appreciate different things about the books.  One of the big differences is the poetry.  I didn't use to take a lot of notice of it when I was younger - though some of it still stuck in my long-term memory.  However, now, I find that I get far more from the poetry and I'm far more aware of how Tolkien uses it.

For instance, the Rohirrim, in keeping with the cultures Tolkien based them on, use alliterative poetry with a metre very different to the bouncy  iambs that are more common in modern English.

Read it out loud and hear the way the stresses fall on the alliterative words.  Dark, dim; thane, Thengel; Mark-wardens, mist-enshrouded.

Lament for Theoden

From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning
with thane and captain rode Thengel’s son:
to Edoras he came, the ancient halls
of the Mark-wardens mist-enshrouded;
golden timbers were in gloom mantled.
Farewell he bade to his free people,
hearth and high-seat, and the hallowed places,
where long he had feasted ere the light faded.
Forth rode the king, fear behind him,
fate before him. Fealty kept he;
oaths he had taken, all fulfilled them.
Forth rode Théoden. Five nights and days
east and onward rode the Eorlingas
through Folde and Fenmarch and the Firienwood,
six thousand spears to Sunlending,
Mundburg the mighty under Mindolluin,
Sea-kings’ city in the South-kingdom
foe-beleaguered, fire-encircled.
Doom drove them on. Darkness took them,
Horse and horseman; hoofbeats afar
sank into silence: so the songs tell us.

Look at this bit:
Forth rode the king, fear behind him,
fate before him. Fealty kept he;
oaths he had taken, all fulfilled them. 

I'm not good enough at technical poetry to tell you what he's doing here (though someone on my flist may be), but the first two lines drive at you with each 'F' word, then the rhythm becomes slower and more sombre to make you feel the weight of those oaths and what their result was.

I love it.