Episode 215 Summary

[Tony Meade]

SESSION 215

Knowing vs. seeing:

• The kind of knowing inferred is experiential, rather than theoretical or academic knowledge.
• Note: There may be an implied relationship between the shift to negation in “never” and the sound of the word “know”, like “no”. This is a common connection in Shakespeare’s works.
• The use of “knowing” implies his absence from the world, as he could know about things that he has not yet seen, while seeing is less final, as it only requires him to stay in Rivendell.
• The use of “seeing” as pure observation is evident in the earlier stanzas, where he was absent from the things he was describing in spring and summer, and it was entirely objective.
• The rhyme of “ago” and “know” links the past and the future through those people involved.
• For Bilbo in Rivendell, there is a direct link with the deep past as many of the Elves remember it.
• Bilbo has already set himself as a transmitter of stories from the past through his translations.
• Note: In the earlier drafts, Bilbo gave this “Translations from the Elvish” to Sam as the four hobbits leave Rivendell, instead of to Frodo first, and through him to Sam, as in the final text.

For returning feet:

• The rhythm in stanza six is nearly perfect iambic meter once again, except for the opening “but”.
• “But” is a very strong conjunction to begin a sentence since it changes the context through contrast. It acts as a reversal of what has come before, so it intrudes strongly into the meter.
• The opening “but” is a spondaic foot, which is common in otherwise perfect metrical lines.
• So far, the opening “I” has been deemphasized in both theme and meter, so this is conspicuous.
• In contrast, the use of “I” in the fourth lines of previous stanzas has been emphasized in stress.
• Since “returning” is a three-syllable word, it stands out, and forces “for” to be a stressed word.
• Three-syllable words are rare in the poem in general, with only three throughout the whole thing. There are two in the opening stanza, but “returning” stands out in its metric placement.
• Note: Perfect meter is often a sign of bad poetry, and therefore is often present in verse written for comedy, such as Dr. Seuss, who uses a perfect meter to emphasize the light, satirical tone. Therefore, Tolkien’s ability to attain a serious tone within a perfect metrical rhythm is unusual.
• The stressed “for” emphasizes the particular sense that “listen” has in this stanza. The verb phrase “listen for” has a different meaning than to “listen to”, emphasizing his anticipation.
• Listening for something is an active verb phrase, while listening to something is more passive.
• This recontextualizes sitting beside the fire and thinking, as the listener is engaged and alert.

Voices at the door:

• The strong rhyme between lines two and four matches the previous stanzas, but the sound of “before” and “door” is different from the earlier stanzas and closer to stanza five alone.
• The stressed “for” in line three adds in third, internal rhyme, acting as a bridge between them.
• The “s” alliteration is repeated with “sit” and the internal “s” sounds of “listen” and “voices”.
• There is also an “f” alliteration with “before”, “for”, and “feet”, which connects past and future.
• There is also an implied fricative alliteration with the “v” in “voices”, which inverts stanza four.
• Note: Depending on the dialect and context, “fire” might be used as a one or two-syllable word.
• The “r” sounds of “for” and “returning” are blended together as if it was one strong “r” sound.
• The comma repeats the same pause that was present in most of the preceding stanzas, though it is syntactically different in that instead of presenting a list, it is a full stop between clauses.
• Note: This is considered bad grammar in American usage but was once more common in the UK.
• If one reads “all the while” as a subordinating concept rather than an adverbial phrase, then this is not a run-on sentence, but makes the first two lines a subordinate clause to the second pair.
• In a sense, this subordinates the whole poem to the final couplet through sitting and thinking.
• The use of “returning” instead of another word like “arriving” shows this is about anticipation.
• While “but” and “all the while” serve different logical and rhetorical functions, and therefore is not to be read as one complete phrase, the two work as a conjunctive phrase for the poem.

END OF SESSION

 

[Das_Lied]

Sincerely I thank you Tony for such note! It helps so much! For I am not a native speaker nor an English student. I learn English poem from Corey as my first experience and your note helps me in understanding all the terms in poetry a lot! How lucky I am to have your and Corey's and this warm community's help to dive deeply into Tolkien's world. Thanks so very much!

 

[Tony Meade]

You're very welcome, and I'm glad that you're finding these helpful. The poetry ones are the hardest to render into a text summary, so it's nice to hear that people are able to use them to better understand the poetry.