Where is the poem "Kor"?

[HareBrain]

I remember reading it years ago, probably in one of the HOME series, but I can't remember where. Anyone know?

[The Judge]

I don't know the poem myself, but any lines you remember to help us search for it, or jog others' memories?


found this reference to it if it's of any help:

Part III (The Cauldron and the Cook) sees Tolkien as poet and storyteller. Joe R. Christopher (Tolkien's Lyric Poetry) presents a detailed analysis of `Kor: In a City Lost and Dead'

in an Amazon review of 'Tolkien's Legendarium, Essays on the History of Middle-Earth'

[HareBrain]

Nope, sorry, the only things I remember about it is that it was about 20-30 lines long, and was written early on.

[j. d. worthington]

It is in The Book of Lost Tales, Volume 1, p. 136 (American edition). I'm not sure if the British and American editions (hb) match; if not, or if you have a paper (or trade paper) edition, so it may be more helpful to say you can find it in Chapter V, "The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr".

[HareBrain]

Thanks JD - now ordered from the library.

[pyan]

It's on the same page of the UK edition of the Unwin trade p/b as well.

I wish JRRT had kept the name Kôr - the change to Túna was just a little infelicitous, IMHO...

And for anyone who'd like to see it, but hasn't got TBoLT1:




A sable hill, gigantic, rampart-crowned
Stands gazing out across a azure sea
Under an azure sky , on whose dark ground
Impearled as against a floor of porphyry
Gleam marble temples white, and dazzling halls;
And tawny shadows fingered long are made
In fretted bars upon their ivory walls
By massy trees rock-rooted in the shade
Like stony chiselled pillars on the vault
With shaft and capital of black basalt.
There slow forgotten days for ever reap
The silent shadows counting out rich hours
And no voice stirs; and all the marble towers
White, hot and soundless, ever burn and sleep.

[The Judge]

Well, I can't say it's one I'm going to bother committing to memory, though I quite like the final clause (except the overspilling 'White'). As a matter of interest to a complete ignoramus here, is this the same poem (?sonnet?) as the one to which I found reference ie 'Kor: In a City Lost and Dead'?

[j. d. worthington]

Indeed it is. The latter phrase is the subtitle of the piece in The Book of Lost Tales....

[pyan]

I don't know what the form would be called, I'm afraid - it's almost an English sonnet, but the end couplet has been moved to lines 9&10.

Sonnet: ababcdcdefefgg
Kôr: ababcdcdeefgfg

[The Judge]

Thanks jd - I wondered as the poem seemed to fit the idea of a dead city, but it seems a little inconsequential for a 'detailed analysis' somehow.

Yes, I saw that Pyan, that's why I hesitated about calling it a sonnet. I've seen them without the final couplet (eg Manley Hopkins with abba abba cdc dcd and abba abba ccd ccd) but not with the couplet moved up like that. Odd.

[HareBrain]

Originally Posted by pyan

Kôr: ababcdcdeefgfg

Isn't it fggf at the end?

Thanks for transcribing it, Pyan. It's shorter than I remembered, but still brings an effective atmosphere, to my mind.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

Isn't it fggf at the end?

Oops! Of course it is. Sorry...