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Try as I might, I cannot best

The mounting darkness in my breast

Oh! How I long once more to see

Gondor's banners on the breeze.

And yet (my heart despairs again!)

I fear we face an evil end.

Nine whose hearts are Brave and True

Shall do what they set out to do!

***

I laughed at all -- all was a joke,

For Brandybucks are simple folk.

I know not why it changed, or how,

But life is far from simple now.

I hope that when this journey ends,

I shall be merry once again.

To stand and fight the Nine Who Ride,

To stand together side by side!

***

Seems years ago that, in the Shire,

Merry and I did conspire

To follow Frodo when he left.

Tell me, who'd have ever guessed

(That though unused to living rough)

This Took was made of such stern stuff!

Nine whose hearts are True and Brave

Shall speed the One Ring on its way!

***

A Fellowship whose Tale will live --

And courage to the Reader give --

Long after Middle-earth is gone,

Long after them, in rhyme and song;

In Shire-towns and forest glens

This shall long be sung of them:

Nine whose hearts are Brave and True

Shall do what they set out to do,

To stand and fight the Nine Who Ride,

To stand together side by side;

Nine whose hearts are True and Brave

Shall speed the One Ring on its way!

ENDE

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A/N: I've been working on this poem -- on and off -- for eleven months. The first two lines came to me, rather suddenly, while my best friend Erin and I were waiting in line for FotR last year and the rest followed, in laborious spurts. Boromir and Gandalf were the last to show up -- and the hardest to write.

Comments as to what I did right -- and wrong -- would be very much appreciated.

--Skybright Daye