What is your favorite Tolkien poem? And why?

[Tar-Ancalimë]

I will share mine with you to begin. It is Bilbo's Song (that's what its called in the index anyway :huh: ). It's in FotR on p.313.
It starts like this in case the name doesn't tell you everything (lol):

I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen.
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
And summers that have been.

I like it because it is such a good expressing of ideas on life and death.
I have set it to music I like it so much! Sometimes at work I go around singing it and I get really weird looks!

Well??

[Lady of Rohan]

I like that one too, Tar-Ancalime.

I don't know, I guess I like The Road goes ever on.

[Lady Ashley]

Gee...I doin't know if I can narrow it down! I love ALL of his poems. Anything from the Hobbits' bath and food songs to the Elven star songs and songs of the Elder Days and the mighy war anthems of Gondor and Rohan.

I love them because...they're really beautiful and ancient-sounding...and just plain LOTR.

[Wilwarin]

Oh Tar, I really like that one to, that's always been one of my favorites.

I also really like "Frodo's Lament for Gandalf". I am so glad they are going to put--at least part of it--in the extended DVD. :thumbs:

[Nessa the Dancer]

Ohhh! It's imposible to choose a favourite I think they are all great.
Bilbo's bath song I love (and always sing it when I'm having a bath)

One that I especially like is Sam's song of the Western lands that he sings in Mordor to find Frodo. It's lovely because it just comes to him when he is sad and desperate to find Frodo.

Rivendell and The road goes ever on, I sing when I'm out walking in the forest.

Frodo's poem for Gandalf I love because it is so simple, a hobbit's view of Ganalf, but at the same time it is exactly how Gandalf is. The way he walks and talks, and the way he died. It always makes me cry when I read the end of that poem.

'in Khazad-dum his wisdom died'

It's the simplicity that makes it so sad.

*sniff* pass me a tissue.

[Wilwarin]

*Snif, snif*, here you go. *Wil passess Nessa a couple and keeps the rest for herself* mecry

Yes, that is my all time favorite poem from the books!

[Lady of Rohan]

I have posted earlier but I would like to amend that. I like all the poems you have mentioned, however, my favorite would have to be The Fall of Gil-Galad, which Strider sings on the road to Rivendell. I love that poem not only for its inherent beauty but also because of the context. The hobbits know nothing of Strider and it is amazing to them that he should know elven-lore. Its irony and humor really appeal to me.

Everything about Strider, before he is known as Aragorn, appeals to me. The last line in Bilbo's poem, too, moves me in this same way: "The crownless again shall be king." The very first time I read the book I knew the king was Strider. This type of emotion is very potent to me.