Disclaimer: Well, not as necessary for this as for other writings, but the world structure of Arda and Legolas, the narrator of the poem, belong to J.R.R. Tolkien.
Author's Note: Yea! Another poem with an end-of-stanza motif! (See "The Random Musings of Frodo Baggins" Chapter 5 and "Child of Sorrow" for other such poems.) Aren't motifs fun? A poem from Legolas to the Sea. Perhaps it has something to do with why he never got married.
~~~~~~~~~
On this earth I have lingered, too long have I stayed
In this womb of tree-branches, this cradle of shade,
So I bid thee farewell, Middle-earth, O my mother
And I run to the arms of the Sea like a lover.
I will build us a marriage-bed with mine own hands,
A gray ship for to bear me away from these lands.
I will follow my love: when she calls me, I'll come;
She is lonely - the white gulls' cry beckons me home.
A bright star I will follow that shines in the West
And kindles a restless desire in my breast
For a lonely, far-off island's shore; a salt breeze;
The gulls' keening; my prow cleaving through virgin seas
That no Man's ship has sailed, and will never sail more;
And at last, for to rest on the Lonely Isle's shore.
Where the songs of my people wing free I will come;
See - the flame of their lighthouse is smiling me home.
Oh, I'll rest on thy bosom, my fair ocean bride;
I'll sail cradled in thee, in my lover, the tide.
The seabirds' sweet lament will be our wedding-hymn;
For our canopy, sky; as our gate, the world's rim.
There I'll carry us through, deftly guiding the sail
That will billow above silver waves like a veil,
O'er the shining sand doorstep and threshold of foam
Where the trumpeting white swans will welcome us home.
Author's Note: Yea! Another poem with an end-of-stanza motif! (See "The Random Musings of Frodo Baggins" Chapter 5 and "Child of Sorrow" for other such poems.) Aren't motifs fun? A poem from Legolas to the Sea. Perhaps it has something to do with why he never got married.
~~~~~~~~~
On this earth I have lingered, too long have I stayed
In this womb of tree-branches, this cradle of shade,
So I bid thee farewell, Middle-earth, O my mother
And I run to the arms of the Sea like a lover.
I will build us a marriage-bed with mine own hands,
A gray ship for to bear me away from these lands.
I will follow my love: when she calls me, I'll come;
She is lonely - the white gulls' cry beckons me home.
A bright star I will follow that shines in the West
And kindles a restless desire in my breast
For a lonely, far-off island's shore; a salt breeze;
The gulls' keening; my prow cleaving through virgin seas
That no Man's ship has sailed, and will never sail more;
And at last, for to rest on the Lonely Isle's shore.
Where the songs of my people wing free I will come;
See - the flame of their lighthouse is smiling me home.
Oh, I'll rest on thy bosom, my fair ocean bride;
I'll sail cradled in thee, in my lover, the tide.
The seabirds' sweet lament will be our wedding-hymn;
For our canopy, sky; as our gate, the world's rim.
There I'll carry us through, deftly guiding the sail
That will billow above silver waves like a veil,
O'er the shining sand doorstep and threshold of foam
Where the trumpeting white swans will welcome us home.