Monday, March 14, 2016

Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien


Now Reading:
Fellowship of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 
Gandalf's Letter

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king"

The first line is a reversal of a line from The Merchant of Venice, "All that glitters is not gold'. By reversing this, the focus is now on gold rather than glitters, changing it to something along the line of not all gold is clearly gold. From there, the next three lines follow the same format, does not glitter, not all...are lost, does not wither, etc. The repetition makes it clear that does not is the emphasis.  The next lines emphasizes what "shall be", shall be woken, shall spring, renewed shall be, etc. The use of shall be also emphasizes that these things will happen, the writer is confident that these will occur. These are all things to come. The format also gives a sense these things will happen in such an order and that without one another, they cannot and will not occur. 

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