Thanks,
Aratlithiel, for providing the link to the poem. It was worth reading again.
I don't see the protagonist (if it's Frodo) as a ghost in the last lines. Rather, I see one who is isolated.
Quote:
I heard dancing there, music in the air,
feet going quick on the green floors.
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This puts me in mind of Bilbo's and the Dwarves' experience in Mirkwood, and reminds me also of a passage in the final chapter of LotR, where Tolkien describes the Company of the Rings riding off toward the Grey Havens, passing through the Shire, appearing to strangers as nothing more than a moonbeam.
The evocative description of the land across the sea puts me in mind of the description of Faerie in
Smith of Wooton Major. It's almost as if the protagonist of the poem has crossed the sea and wanders in Faerie, but is not welcome there, unlike Smith.
I do believe that this is meant to be a description of Frodo's fears. I think that he feared that having had the Ring, and having fallen at last to its temptation, he had forfeited any chance for hope. I think that the grief of having lost the Ring was so heavy on him that he doubted that Tol Eressea could do him any good, even were he accepted by the Elves there, which he seems to have doubted.
Just my thoughts. Thanks for starting this thread!
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