Samuel Taylor Coleridge
by MC
In Isengard did Curunir,
of stately tower, guard the key
Where ere the shining Isen ran
Through forest measureless to man
Down to a western sea.
So once were miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers girdled round:
Where grew the gardens bright with rills
Where blossomed many a friendly tree;
And near was Fangorn ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunlit spots of green.
But round that timeless Tower rose
Athwart the green, through savage foes
a place unholy and now daunted
As e'er beneath a moon was haunted.
And caverns, measureless to man
Were built, in tumult, by ruthless hand
Decreed by Sauron from afar
Whose ancient voice ever threatened war.
The shadow of the Lord of Fear
Commanded through the Palantir
Where caught he, as by deadly fay
Curunir ensnared, obeyed
this miracle of rare device,
transformed the land to pits of vice.
Then to the chasm, with turmoil seething
As if the earth in gasps were breathing,
The unpent Isen turned it's path
Amidst which Fangorn strode, in wrath.
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
And thrust the power 'gainst the vale
While amid the dancing rocks,
at once, but not forever
He flung averted river.
An old man with a power
In a vision once he saw,
A drowning Isengard
Came on a gray horse swift and hale
With King and other ranks in trail.
And all who heard did see him there,
His flashing eyes, his flowing hair!
And all would cry, Beware! Beware!
He wove a circle 'round it there
And Fangorn guarded it with dread,
Till they whom on defenseless yew hath fed,
Were cast into the wild.