Call of the Dream by Queen Galadriel

Inspired by “The Sea Bell”/“Frodo’s Dreme”

I walked alone down a street of stone,

Through a gray rain falling.

A forgotten dream and a far-off gleam

To my heart were calling.

For a little while, strange faces smiled,

And strange hands were extended.

With them I went in great content,

For when the road had ended,

I’d know them all, fair friends, and tall,

And homeward they would guide me;

But I found myself on a lonely shelf,

And there were none beside me.

By a golden gate a ship did wait.

To it I cried, “Bear me away,

 Out of the dream to the golden gleam

Of the new dawn of a clear day!”

Out the ship swept, and o’er the waves leapt,

And the morning passed into gloaming,

And still I sailed on, swift and alone,

Over the billows foaming.

And sleep found me upon the sea,

And I saw a white gull flying,

And from its beak, faint, yet not weak,

A loved voice was crying.

I came with dawn’s light to a shore of white,

And heard in the distance singing,

And I saw up high in a shimmering sky

A lonely seabird winging.

It called to me, and I turned from the sea

And followed it over the dry sands,

Where diamonds gleamed; and as in a dream,

I gathered them up into my hands.

But as I held them fast, their sparkle passed,

And they melted in my hands’ grasping,

To fall again, like a glittering rain,

Through my trembling fingers’ clasping.

I came to a glade where a feast was laid

And beheld the faces of fair friends.

“At last!” I said, but from me they fled,

And brought their dance to a swift end.

And there I was left alone and bereft,

And there were none beside me;

But I followed them still o’er valley and hill,

The sound of pipes to guide me.

Often their light, distant and bright,

Dazzled my weary, sleepless eyes.

But ever I found but trodden ground,

Desserted, under starry skies.

To my ship I went, my weary head bent,

And to it cried, “Bear me away!

My mind is wracked, so let us turn back

To the lands of waking and true day.

Go from this land of diamond-strewn sand,

And make silent and swift your leaving;

For this accursed coast is peopled with ghosts

Whose arts are fair and deceiving.”

I slept again, and racked with pain,

I saw a gray rain falling;

And through its tears, faint in my ears,

A loved voice was calling.

Once more I awakened in a place forsaken,

And knew not how I had come thence.

Confused and alone, I sat on a stone,

And looked over a broken fence.

All windows were shuttered; far-off thunder muttered,

And none came forth to meet me,

As long I roved through the land I once loved;

For there were none left to greet me.

Around me dinned a lamenting wind,

And I cried through the cold rain falling;

But mournful and low, the weary echo

Of my own voice answered my calling.

I lay and wept, and at last I slept,

And over me again came the dreaming

Of a far-away voice and friends that rejoiced

And a distant silver gleaming.

The sound of the sea yet haunted me,

And out of it there rose a clear song,

And I felt again through a haze of pain,

Beloved arms, sure and strong.

I opened my eyes and beheld with surprise

A familiar face above me,

And though washed with tears and lined with fear,

I knew it was one who loved me.

When I awoke, there lingered a hope

That dream had not belied me.

But I opened my eyes and away it died,

For there was none beside me.

No love remained to ease the pain,

No song to soothe a heart broken.

Would that I had slept and forever kept

To the dreams, and had never woken;

For I lost myself on that lonely shelf,

And left my soul in the foaming sea

Or on that isle where, for a while,

The promise of peace was offered me.

Still the rain falls, but I do not call,

For all who once loved me have long fled.

Their homes they have left, silent and bereft,

And their friend’s heart, empty and dead.

Tormented and weak, like a ghost I shriek,

For there are no men to fear me;

Alone I walk; to myself I talk,

For there are none left to hear me.

Despairing I sit, and wander in wit,

And care not for the rain falling;

For here at the last, from memories past,

I hear them, loved voices calling.

Text (c) Queen Galadriel