From Daybreak to Evening

    Greetings! I hope all of you had a lovely Easter last weekend. As difficult as it is to transition from such a momentous and wonderful thing as Christ’s resurrection to, well—to anything, I decided that now is as good a time as any to share a poem I scrambled together in the last week. 

    For context, I was reading a short story of Tolkien’s, entitled Smith of Wootton Major. It tells the tale of a young blacksmith’s son who swallows a star from the land of Faery in a piece of Feast-cake. He was always a quiet lad, but he becomes merrier, brighter, and goes on long journeys here and there. Eventually he finds Faery-land, but must give up his star (which sits proudly on his forehead) to the king. It’s a beautiful yet bittersweet story, and I highly suggest reading it if you haven’t yet. 

    And now, without further ado, here’s the poem. 

  

From Daybreak to Evening

“You must have walked far.”

“Yes indeed; all the way from Daybreak to Evening.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, Smith of Wootton Major

When I was young I wandered far

from daybreak to the edge of night

my guiding light an Elven-star

through darkness it shone bright

in an age gone by I walked the path

of shining sky and starry seas

with wonder saw the fire’s wrath

in setting sun beneath the trees

I journeyed far through stream and hill

and danced with golden flowered light

that yet I think there lingers still

though the World since fell to night

but now my Elven guiding-star

has left I know not where

I have wandered here and far

from break of day to evening there

now starlit sky meets midnight sea

and here my journey’s end does lie

under shade of hill and tree

where the shining sea joins the sky.

Farewell, guiding star! My road has ended here

in Faery-land, that starry place

that ever I held dear. 

____

Namarië, 

Astrya