Words beneath a dappled sky

The hunters three, persistently
(Consistent in their tracking feat)
A leaf of Lorien they found,
All pounded down in loam and peat.

An attempt at the patterning of Tolkien's "Errantry" which turned out to be quite a difficult task and increased even more my respect for his grasp of language. The pattern has been turned in this case to the story of the Three Hunters in their run and their encounter with the Rohirrim, emphasis on Gimli.

The Burly Axegrinder
( There was a burly axegrinder, a taxminder, a warrior )
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It is an ancient Wizard friend,
And he stoppeth here for me.
'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

Considering the large number of well known classic works and poets that I've adapted to Tolkien's themes over the years, I've decided the best route here is to simply provide a link to where they can all be found already indexed:

http://lotrscrapbook.bookloaf.net/poetry/adaptations/adapt_prim1.html

You can navigate from this one to the following pages - the last two pages are the Shakespearian sonnets that may also be found here on LJ.

I think the appeal of adapting is not necessarily always a framework for 'parody' but rather a challenge to myself to see if I can match the tone, style and word choices of famous poets. Some of them took quite a lot of work, others were simple off-the-cuff writings, but I like to think they shan't disappoint - many have been so completely reworked that very little of the original remains aside from a faint familiarity in the rhythm and style, others still somewhat resemble 'themselves.'

Poets include Tennyson, Wordsworth, Bronte, Frost, Yeats, Whitman, Poe, Longfellow, Coleridge, Service, Browning, Shelley, Burns, Whitman, cummings, Byron, etc.

Once again, Shakespeare provides a framework that suits the subject matter so very well -

For Eomer, betrayed and exiled by his own Lord's twisted command:
( Eomer: Hands of Falsehood )
Theoden:
( Dark were my Dreams, of Late )
( I Shall Not Now Be Ashamed )

Shakespearian sonnets adapted for Denethor and his sons:

( Denethor: To Thyself they are Death-loyal )
( Boromir and the Ring: Shadows of Victory )
( Faramir: How could I hold Thee to Cause Thy Failing? )

Too many songs to list here, but fear not!

Over the years I've ended up adapting the meter and rhyme of not only classical poetry, but many a light hearted song. While I think posting or listing them all here would be a bit much, I admit being somewhat proud of some of the results (Song for a Cute Fuzzy Moth is still a favorite, for instance)

I usually tried to use commonly known folksong or musicals tunes rather than 'pop' with the aim of the readers hopefully being able to relate. I am often annoyed by adaptations people post with tunes only a tiny pocket of their readers are likely to know.

You are welcome to take a look - four pages of my adapted songs have been collected and indexed over here at the Scrapbook site:

http://lotrscrapbook.bookloaf.net/songs/longer/primula.html

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