ReVerse

[Saraphim]

I'll take a stab at this. A short one, and one I've read often and parodied (is that a word?) before:

The rhyme of the Barrow-Wight:

Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.

~~~~~

Warm of soul and heart and life,
and warm of smile over strife:
Always to dance and sing for joy,
Always, till sadness becomes coy.
Under bright moon the stars shine bright,
but still we call for another pint,
until the sun begins to rise,
we stay, for this party we cannot surmise.

~~~~~
*Wince* Alright, so my bard skills need some work. But great thread H-I!

[The Barrow-Wight]

Rather than achieve an opposite meaning, I endeavored to use the same poem of the Barrow-wight and reverse each word as well as I could (what's the opposite of bed???).

Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.

With only a few misplacements of words here and there, here is what I came up with.

Hot is no foot nor brain nor skin,
nor is waking over water hot:
always to sleep under watery house,
always, before the Moon prospers or the Sun lives.
Outside the white stillness space won’t live,
or under silver there refuse us death,
before a light vassal drops her foot
beneath living sky or hale sea.


Weird how it almost has meaning, huh? Sounds like an Old Norse proverb to me.

[Evisse the Blue]

I've tried my hand on two short poems (I won't give the originals here, cause I'm sure you know them. And if you don't, well you should )

1. Theoden's battle cry before taking on the Pellenor:

Cower down, cower down, servants of Sauron!
Frail hearts, sleep on, and beg for your lives,
Weapons shall be put down, your bones shall be spared.
A truce night, a grey night, and so the moon will set.
Crawl then, crawl then, crawl to Mordor.

2. Eomer's defiant cry on the Pellenor:

Into trust, into radiance, till the sun set,
Silently I walked in the dark, unarmed
I crawled to despair's bosom, with a glad heart,
Then there was quiet, and peace, and a white dawn.

[Elennar Starfire]

Here's my strange version of the ring-poem. I just shifted letters and then corrected spelling and punctuation.

Three rings for thee, Elven-king, sunder the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-Lord sin their halls of stone,
Nine former tall men doomed to die,
One fort he, Dark Lord, honest dark thrown,
In the land of More Door where the shadows lie,
One ring to rule the mall, on erring to find them,
On erring tub ring the mall a din the darkness bind them,
In the land of More Door where the shadows lie.

[Carnimírië]

Nine former tall men doomed to die

Ok, that had me laughing for the rest of my life! (Laughing for the rest of my life? So...how's that supposed to work?...we wonders, yes precious.

[HerenIstarion]

Thanks for all the entries, folks they are great

and, yes, BW, it sounds even ominous, though it be reversed from thing ominous in itself, and, (one might suppose, should be cheery?) what with all that sleeping under water house...

[HerenIstarion]

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.


*************************

Nothing of lead shines forever
Everyman staying is slack
Newcome is weak and can’t lever
Leaves to bring shade to one’s back

Flames to be put out to slumber
Rays to be lost in the web
Rusted’ll be ax and no lumber
Down'll come by forester’s cab