Dancing Goblin Feet

Goblin Feet
A Poem to Memorize - A Poem to Remember
by J.R.R. Tolkien

I AM off down the road
Where the fairy lanterns glowed
And the little pretty flittermice are flying:
A slender band of gray
It runs creepily away
And the hedges and the grasses are a-sighing.
The air is full of wings,
And of blundering beetle-things
That warn you with their whirring and their humming.
O! I hear the tiny horns
Of enchanted leprechauns
And the padded feet of many gnomes a-coming!

O! the lights: O! the gleams: O! the little tinkly sounds:
O! the rustle of their noisless little robes:
O! the echo of their feet -- of their little happy feet:
O! their swinging lamps in little starlit globes.

I must follow in their train
Down the crooked fairy lane
Where the coney-rabbits long ago have gone,
And where silverly they sing
In a moving moonlit ring
All a-twinkle with the jewels they have on.
They are fading round the turn
Where the glow-worms palely burn
And the echo of their padding feet is dying!
O! it's knocking at my heart --
Let me go! O! let me start!
For the little magic hours are all a-flying.

O! the warmth! O! the hum! O! the colours in the dark!
O! the gauzy wings of golden honey-flies!
O! the music of their feet -- of their dancing goblin feet!
O! the magic! O! the sorrow when it dies.
(from Oxford Poetry, 1915)

What Does It All Mean?

Sailing on Noah's Ark

Those who are collectors of the inanimate will delight in this poem and understand a bit more than "just because," the reason they clutter their lives, indulging themselves with such a puzzling human instinct. Here is a beautiful poem by Texas poet Janet McCann, "The Woman Who Collects Noah's Arks", from a work entitled Emily's Dress. It is a PDF file.

"The Woman Who Collects Noah’s Arks
Has them in every room of her house,
wall hangings, statues, paintings, quilts and blankets,
ark lampshades, mobiles, Christmas tree ornaments,
t-shirts, sweaters, necklaces, books,
comics, a creamer, a sugar bowl, candles, napkins,
tea-towels and tea-tray, nightgown, pillow, lamp.
Animals two-by-two in plaster, wood,
fabric, oil paint, copper, glass, plastic, paper,
tinfoil, leather, mother-of-pearl, styrofoam,
clay, steel, rubber, wax, soap.
Why I cannot ask, though I would like
to know, the answer has to be simply
because. Because at night when she lies
with her husband in bed, the house rocks out
into the bay, the one that cuts in here to the flatlands
at the center of Texas. Because the whole wood structure
drifts off, out under the stars, beyond the last
lights, the two of them pitching and rolling
as it all heads seaward. Because they hear
trumpets and bellows from the farther rooms.
Because the sky blackens, but morning finds them always
safe on the raindrenched land,
bird on the windowsill."

Hat Tip to Ginny at ChicagoBoyz.