A Bit from The Sea-Bell

Another small bit of poetry - from Tolkien - that is too lovely not to share. Unfortunately the poem is so lengthy I didn't want to post it in full, so I'm putting my favorite part of it down. Do look up the rest of it if you can, reader. You will not be disappointed.

The Sea-Bell

I walked by the sea, and there came to me,

as a star-beam on the wet sand,

a white shell like a sea-bell;

trembling it lay in my wet hand.

In my fingers shaken I heard waken

a ding within, by a harbour bar

a buoy swinging, a call ringing

over endless seas, faint now and far.

Then I saw a boat silently float

on the night-tide, empty and grey.

'It is later than late! Why do we wait?'

I leapt in and cried: 'Bear me away!'

It bore me away, wetted with spray,

wrapped in a mist, wound in a sleep,

to a forgotten strand in a strange land.

In the twilight beyond the deep

I heard a sea-bell swing in the swell,

dinging, dinging, and the breakers roar

on the hidden teeth of a perilous reef;

and at last I cam to a long shore.

White it glimmered, and the sea simmered

with star-mirrors in a sliver net;

cliffs of stone pale as ruel-bone

in the moon-foam were gleaming wet.

Glittering sand slid through my hand,

dust of pearl and jewel-grist,

trumpets of opal, roses of coral,

flutes of green and amethyst.

.... to be continued at readers' requests or in poem-hunting.