by Bilbo Baggins
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Beneath the roof there is a bed,
But not yet weary are our feet,
Still round the corner we may meet:
A sudden tree or standing stone
That none have seen but we alone.
Tree and flower and leaf and grass,
Let them pass! Let them pass!
Hill and water under sky,
Pass them by! Pass them by!
Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though we pass them by today
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe,
Let them go! Let them go!
Sand and stone and pool and dell,
Fare you well! Fare you well!
Home is behind, the world ahead
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead
We'll wander back to home and bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!
Fire and lamp, and meat and bread,
And then to bed! And then to bed!
To heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain may fall and wind may blow,
And many miles be still to go
But under a tall tree I will lie,
And let the clouds go sailing by.
by Bilbo Baggins
That washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he who will not sing:
O! water hot is a noble thing
O! Sweet is the sound of the pouring rain
And the brook which leaps from hill to plain
But better than rain and rippling streams
Is hot water that smokes and steams
O! water cold we may pour at need
drown a thirsty throat and be glad indeed
But better is beer, if drink we lack
And hot water poured down the back
O! water is fair that leaps on high
In a fountain white beneath the sky
But never did fountain sound so sweet
As splashing hot water with my feet!
by Meriadoc Brandybuck
and Peregrin Took
though wind may blow and rain may fall
We must away ere break of day
Far over woods and mountains tall
To Rivendell where Elves yet dwell
In glades beneath the misty fell
Through moor and waste we ride in haste
And wither then we cannot tell
With foes ahead, behind us dread
Beneath the sky shall be our bed
Untill at last our toil be past
Our journey done, our errand sped
We must away, we must away
We ride before the break of day
by Frodo Baggins
depair not! For though dark they stand,
all woods there be must end at last,
and see the open sun go past:
the setting sun, the rising sun,
the day's end, or the day begun.
For east or west all woods must fail...
by Bilbo Baggins
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green.
I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
