Leaflet’s Reviews > The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien > Status Update

Thus ends volume 1. On to volume 2!

The Pool of Forgetfulness is a good autumnal poem. I also liked better the version of Tinfang Warble that returns in the poem Over Old Hills and Far Away.

In honor of that ubiquitous purple typewriter ribbon:

The purple ribbon of Leeds,
The clue the researcher needs,
To date Tolkien’s verse,
Riddled with faint writing or worse,
Thus the ordering of poems succeeds.

Random Thought: someone ought to write a poem entitled, “The Purple Ribbon of Leeds.”

“The song I can sing is as shreds one remembers
Of golden imaginings fashioned in sleep,
A whispered tale told by the withering embers
Of old things far off that but few hearts keep.”

~ from The Bidding of the Minstrel from The Lay of Earendel