'The Mewlips' by J.R.R. Tolkien, and a request...

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

The Mewlips

The Shadows where the Mewlips dwell
Are dark and wet as ink,
And slow and softly rings their bell,
As in the slime you sink.

You sink into the slime, who dare
To knock upon their door,
While down the grinning gargoyles stare
And noisome waters pour.

Beside the rotting river-strand
The drooping willows weep,
And gloomily the gorcrows stand
Croaking in their sleep.

Over the Merlock Mountains a long and weary way,
In a mouldy valley where the trees are grey,
By a dark pool´s borders without wind or tide,
Moonless and sunless, the Mewlips hide.

The cellars where the Mewlips sit
Are deep and dank and cold
With single sickly candle lit;
And there they count their gold.

Their walls are wet, their ceilings drip;
Their feet upon the floor
Go softly with a squish-flap-flip,
As they sidle to the door.

They peep out slyly; through a crack
Their feeling fingers creep,
And when they´ve finished, in a sack
Your bones they take to keep.

Beyond the Merlock Mountains, a long and lonely road,
Through the spider-shadows and the marsh of Tode,
And through the wood of hanging trees and gallows-weed,
You go to find the Mewlips - and the Mewlips feed.

~by J.R.R. Tolkien



Request: Does anybody have the rest of this poem? It was in one of my grade-school books; I remembered the last three lines, which led me to a post with the last two verses, but no title or author:


Back where the darkness drops its veil
Oh, the sad smoke drifting low!
The far wolves howl and the widows wail
For the graveless dead on the grim war trail
Oh, the sad smoke drifting low!

Night on the pIains, and the dreams it weaves,
Oh, the embers black and cold!
Where painted ghosts with the step of thieves
Dance to the clap of the cottonwood leaves
Oh, the embers black and cold!


.... thank you! Happy Halloween!

Comments

[orange-fell.livejournal.com]

According to that page, the poem was transcribed from "Trails to Treasure" by David H. Russell et al. I think you can even read it online, but you need an OpenLibrary account.

I'm putting a space in this link so my comment doesn't get screened: http:// openlibrary.org/books/OL24401897M/Trails_to_treasure

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Alas, I can't view that site, but thank you for finding the author!

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

You may have already tried this (if so, pls to ignore) - but did you remove the space after "http://" ?

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

LOL, you're so smart; no, I didn't. But I still can't view the poem; my housemate's computer that I'm on has 'issues'.

[orange-fell.livejournal.com]

He's not necessarily the author. Lit. textbooks are compilations, and some of the other stuff transcribed on that website was definitely by Beverly Cleary, so it wasn't all anonymous authors. If you can find "Trails to Treasure" at a library or for sale, there will be some fine print somewhere giving the original sources.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I really wonder if it's the very book I had in school - if so, I remember the illustration was a good one too.

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

OH!!

Dance to the clap of the cottonwood leaves

That's where that came from?? I can still hear the cottonwood leaves, in my head, and you reciting this.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

That's the one! I set it to music in 4th Grade, along with Overheard On A Salt Marsh and Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening which were also in that schoolbook.

[shinygobonkers.livejournal.com]

like the tolkien poem. very moody.