Happy birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien!<\/p>\n
To one who said that myths were lies and therefore worthless,
\neven though \u201cbreathed through silver\u201d
\nPHILOMYTHUS TO MISOMYTHUS <\/p>\nYou look at trees and label them just so,
\n(for trees are `trees\u2019, and growing is `to grow\u2019);
\nyou walk the earth and tread with solemn pace
\none of the many minor globes of Space:
\na star\u2019s a star, some matter in a ball
\ncompelled to courses mathematical
\namid the regimented, cold, Inane,
\nwhere destined atoms are each moment slain.<\/p>\nAt bidding of a Will, to which we bend
\n(and must), but only dimly apprehend,
\ngreat processes march on, as Time unrolls
\nfrom dark beginnings to uncertain goals;
\nand as on page o\u2019erwitten without clue,
\nwith script and limning packed of various hue,
\nand endless multitude of forms appear,
\nsome grim, some frail, some beautiful, some queer,
\neach alien, except as kin from one
\nremote Origo, gnat, man, stone, and sun.
\nGod made the petreous rocks, the arboreal trees,
\ntellurian earth, and stellar stars, and these
\nhomuncular men, who walk upon the ground
\nwith nerves that tingle touched by light and sound.
\nThe movements of the sea, the wind in boughs,
\ngreen grass, the large slow oddity of cows,
\nthunder and lightning, birds that wheel and cry,
\nslime crawling up from mud to live and die,
\nthese each are duly registered and print
\nthe brain\u2019s contortions with a separate dint.<\/p>\nYet trees and not `trees\u2019, until so named and seen \u2013
\nand never were so named, till those had been
\nwho speech\u2019s involuted breath unfurled,
\nfaint echo and dim picture of the world,
\nbut neither record nor a photograph,
\nbeing divination, judgement, and a laugh,
\nresponse of those that felt astir within
\nby deep monition movements that were kin
\nto life and death of trees, of beasts, of stars:
\nfree captives undermining shadowy bars,
\ndigging the foreknown from experience
\nand panning the vein of spirit out of sense.
\nGreat powers they slowly brought out of themselves,
\nand looking backward they beheld the Elves
\nthat wrought on cunning forges in the mind,
\nand light and dark on secret looms entwined.<\/p>\nHe sees no stars who does not see them first
\nof living silver made that sudden burst
\nto flame like flowers beneath the ancient song,
\nwhose very echo after-music long
\nhas since pursued. There is no firmament,
\nonly a void, unless a jewelled tent
\nmyth-woven and elf-patterned; and no earth,
\nunless the mother\u2019s womb whence all have birth.<\/p>\nThe heart of man is not compound of lies,
\nbut draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
\nand still recalls him. Though now long estranged,
\nman is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
\nDisgraced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
\nand keeps the rags of lordship one he owned,
\nhis world-dominion by creative act:
\nnot his to worship the great Artefact,
\nman, sub-creator, the refracted light
\nthrough whom is splintered from a single White
\nto many hues, and endlessly combined
\nin living shapes that move from mind to mind.
\nThough all the crannies of the world we filled
\nwith elves and goblins, though we dared to build
\ngods and their houses out of dark and light,
\nand sow the seed of dragons, \u2019twas our right
\n(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
\nWe make still by the law in which we\u2019re made.<\/p>\nYes! `wish-fulfilment dreams\u2019 we spin to cheat
\nour timid hearts and ugly Fact defeat!
\nWhence came the wish, and whence the power to dream,
\nor some things fair and others ugly deem ?
\nAll wishes are not idle, not in vain
\nfulfilment we devise \u2013 for pain is pain,
\nnot for itself to be desired, but ill;
\nor else to strive or to subdue the will
\nalike were graceless; and of Evil this
\nalone is dreadly certain: Evil is.<\/p>\nBlessed are the timid hearts that evil hate,
\nthat quail in its shadow, and yet shut the gate;
\nthat seek no parley, and in guarded room,
\nthrough small and bare, upon a clumsy loom
\nweave rissues gilded by the far-off day
\nhoped and believed in under Shadow\u2019s sway.<\/p>\nBlessed are the men of Noah\u2019s race that build
\ntheir little arks, though frail and poorly filled,
\nand steer through winds contrary towards a wraith,
\na rumour of a harbour guessed by faith.<\/p>\nBlessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
\nof things nor found within record time.
\nIt is not they that have forgot the Night,
\nor bid us flee to organised delight,
\nin lotus-isles of economic bliss
\nforswearing souls to gain a Circe-kiss
\n(and counterfeit at that, machine-produced,
\nbogus seduction of the twice-seduced).<\/p>\nSuch isles they saw afar, and ones more fair,
\nand those that hear them yet may yet beware.
\nThey have seen Death and ultimate defeat,
\nand yet they would not in despair retreat,
\nbut oft to victory have turned the lyre
\nand kindled hearts with legendary fire,
\nilluminating Now and dark Hath-been
\nwith light of suns as yet by no man seen.<\/p>\nI would that I might with the minstrels sing
\nand stir the unseen with a throbbing string.
\nI would be with the mariners of the deep
\nthat cut their slender planks on mountains steep
\nand voyage upon a vague and wandering quest,
\nfor some have passed beyond the fabled West.
\nI would with the beleaguered fools be told,
\nthat keep an inner fastness where their gold,
\nimpure and scanty, yet they loyally bring
\nto mint in image blurred of distant king,
\nor in fantastic banners weave the sheen
\nheraldic emblems of a lord unseen.<\/p>\nI will not walk with your progressive apes,
\nerect and sapient. Before them gapes
\nthe dark abyss to which their progress tends \u2013
\nif by God\u2019s mercy progress ever ends,
\nand does not ceaselessly revolve the same
\nunfruitful course with changing of a name.
\nI will not treat your dusty path and flat,
\ndenoting this and that by this and that,
\nyour world immutable wherein no part
\nthe little maker has with maker\u2019s art.
\nI bow not yet before the Iron Crown,
\nnor cast my own small golden sceptre down.<\/p>\nIn Paradise perchance the eye may stray
\nfrom gazing upon everlasting Day
\nto see the day-illumined, and renew
\nfrom mirrored truth the likeness of the True.
\nThen looking on the Blessed Land \u2019twill see
\nthat all is as it is, and yet may free:
\nSalvation changes not, nor yet destroys,
\ngarden not gardener, children not their toys.
\nEvil it will not see, for evil lies
\nnot in God\u2019s picture but in crooked eyes,
\nnot in the source but in the tuneless voice.
\nIn Paradise they look no more awry;
\nand though they make anew, they make no lie.
\nBe sure they still will make, not been dead,
\nand poets shall have flames upon their head,
\nand harps whereon their faultless fingers fall:
\nthere each shall choose for ever from the All.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien! To one who said that myths were lies and therefore worthless, even though \u201cbreathed through silver\u201d PHILOMYTHUS TO MISOMYTHUS You look at trees and label them just so, (for trees are `trees\u2019, and growing is `to grow\u2019); you walk the earth and tread with solemn pace one of the many minor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[230],"class_list":["post-98577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-tolkiena"],"yoast_head":"\n
Mythopoeia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Happy birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien! To one who said that myths were lies and therefore worthless, even though "breathed through silver" PHILOMYTHUS TO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/01\/mythopoeia.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mythopoeia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Happy birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien! 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