Frodo's Lament

My round 2 entry for the MELO was Frodo's Lament.


When evening in the Shire was grey
his footsteps on the Hill were heard;
before the dawn he went away
on journey long without a word.

From Wilderland to Western shore,
from northern waste to southern hill,
through dragon-lair and hidden door
and darkling woods he walked at will.

With Dwarf and Hobbit, Elves and Men,
with mortal and immortal folk,
with bird on bough and beast in den,
in their own secret tongues he spoke.

A deadly sword, a healing hand,
a back that bent beneath its load;
a trumpet-voice, a burning brand,
a weary pilgrim on the road.

A lord of wisdom throned he sat,
swift in anger, quick to laugh;
an old man in a battered hat
who leaned upon a thorny staff.
He stood upon the bridge alone
and Fire and Shadow both defied;
his staff was broken on the stone,
in Khazad-dum his wisdom died.


And here's the whole thing:

Fourth-wall commentary - In round 2 of the MELO we were paired up in head-to-head competitions. My category was 'The Mirror of Galadriel'. I considered going with a literal depiction of that scene, but I'd already done that. Plus, I'd already decided that I wanted to try to illustrate poems. The only poem in that chapter is Frodo's Lament. Perhaps my main nitpick here is that the bridge of Khazad-Dum is broken on the wrong side. I went back and forth on that - given the flow of Gandalf from the Shire past the Lonely Mountain, on to Moria and over the bridge, Gandalf should have broken the bridge behind him, but I thought that didn't fit the flow of the MOC. I debated including the Balrog, but decided against it, as that would have made the focus more on Gandalf's death than on his life. Also, I didn't include Sam's additional verse as I didn't think it fits Frodo's poem.
Due to the current problems on MOCpages, I can't feature my worthy opponent John Daniels' entry right now (I can't find him on Flickr or Brickshelf), so I'll get back to that later. His was gorgeous, and I think if I'd just done a straight-forward rendering of the scene he would have won, but the judges seemed to like my twist on the category.