XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:35:44 -0800, sean_q  wrote:   
      
   >On 8/29/2011 4:02 PM, Christopher Kreuzer wrote:   
   >   
   >> I see words there like byre and farmstead,   
   >> which are not really archaic.   
   >   
   >I like this passage a lot; from _Return of the King_:   
   >   
   >   The townlands were rich,   
   >   with wide tilth and many orchards   
   >   homesteads there were   
   >   with oast and garner, fold and byre   
   >   
   >It's as if Tolkien could hardly restrain himself from breaking into   
   >poetry. Compare the last line above to these from "The Lady of Shalott":   
   >   
   >   Out upon the wharfs they came,   
   >   Knight and burgher, lord and dame,   
      
   What? No "wharves"?   
      
      
   Then there's this:   
      
   The mountain sheep are sweeter   
   The valley sheep are fatter   
   we therefore deemed it meeter   
   to carry off the latter.   
      
   and it goes on to say   
      
   As we drove our prize at leisure   
   The king marched forth to catch us   
   His rage surpassed all measure   
   But his people could not match us   
   He fled to his hall pillars   
   And ere our force we led off   
   Some sacked his house and cellars   
   While others cut his head off.   
      
   The introduction to the anthology that this comes from says that these poems   
   "will appeal to young readers" -- and no doubt inspire them to behave as they   
   did recently in British streets, though David Cameron, whose rage surpassed   
   all measure, still has his head.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/litmain.htm   
        http://www.goodreads.com/hayesstw   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
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