As with many fantasy writers, the works of J.R.R. Tolkien have been an important influence upon my writing and my life in general. I like to think that I’m a particularly devoted fan of Dr. Tolkien’s and enjoy discussing his work with anyone who will give me the time of day. During one such conversation, I was horrified to discover that some people do not like the poems he includes in his works, many going so far as to skip over them. Now I’ve never been under the illusion that the general public are great fans of poetry; I can still remember the plaintive groans of my classmates during the poetry lessons at school. However, it still surprises me that people skip Tolkien’s poems because in his rhymes I see the harkening back to an earlier age.
Long before the first novel was first penned, poetry reigned supreme. Poetry might have been accompanied by music or recited alone, but verse was spoken the world over. In that time, poetry strode abroad in the land and was chief reservoir of all stories. Poems recorded religious beliefs and national epics alongside odes to nature and love. A poem could be about a hero who strove with the gods, or could revel in the comforts of a warm hearth. Today we have retained the love poem and the ode to nature, and we have even gained whimsical poems for children of all ages, but we have left behind the grandest poetry. Tolkien’s poems about warriors and dragons, his poems of kings and prophecies, recall the grand verse of the Poetic Age.
I have a theory as to why people can skip Tolkien’s poems: they do not like poetry. Their dislike of poetry has been carefully germinated with the over-analyzations of school teachers and was watered with the lie that poems are only for children and the over-emotional. The unfortunate result is that one can watch the hackles raise when poems are mentioned until everyone looks like an insecure german shepherd. Thankfully, I’ve found the condition to be treatable. Many people just need to be shown that poetry is not what they expected; they need to be seized by the collar and shaken by some powerful verse. Then they’ll say, “Wow, I never knew a poem could do that.” Oftentimes, even one good experience with poetry can open someone up to a new world of appreciation. Suddenly most poems are not only bearable, but enjoyable.
I decided to write poetry and include it in my novels for myriad reasons. My first creative writing was with poems, so it seemed wrong to abandon them when I dove into prose. I also love how poems work, how they can capture feeling in a way that prose cannot, how mysteriously they do their work on us. From reading a lot of old books I gained a love for dramatic englyns, heroic epics, and stark couplets. I determined that those were the kind of poems I wanted to include. I wanted to move away from the whimsical or rococo verse that most people associate with poetry and into the dark and dramatic. I wrote poems that deepened the world, like Tolkien, but shied away from his light-hearted songs. I want my readers to grow to associate poetry with the best parts of the book, with the mystery and magic, or even action. I don’t do this just because I’m altruistic, but also because the poems make those sections even better. I write poems that are important to the plot because I see them as central, not extraneous.
I realize some of my readers may still skip my poems, and they will be the poorer for it. The poems aren’t there to alienate people, but to draw them in and show them a wider world. As a writer, I’m required to tell the truth and poems help me do that. I sincerely hope that they can help my readers hear it.