This was written in response to the story "Story of an Hour"--
Mrs. Louise Mallard had two kinds of heart trouble: one physical, and one mental. The most prominent one was her physical trouble. She had an obviously significant heart disease keeping her from being able to exert herself or take shock very well. Her husband kept her from doing really much of anything in the hope that it would keep her safe and healthy and prolong her life, until he died and she found herself “drinking in a very elixir of life.” He never looked upon her “save but with love,” and she “had loved him—sometimes.” However, this led to her other heart problem, this time causing her emotional and mental grief.
She had never really noticed that she had no life save one inside her home where she was perfectly safe until after she got the word that her husband was killed in a horrific train accident. Then she looked out of her window onto the world which she had never experienced—both metaphorical and physical. She could see her freedom poking down through the clouds and in the words of a far off song, but she could not reach it and grasp it until she opened herself up. Louise had closed herself off from the world just like her family members and husband had in order to keep her safe, so this was not at all easy. In her husband's absence, his friend Richards took over—first breaking the news to her as gently as possible and then shielding Mr. Mallard from her when he came home, though he wasn't fast enough. Her sister also contributed, whispering through the keyhole: “Louise! What are you doing? Come out, you'll make yourself ill!” Everyone tried so hard to keep her safe, but in the end, it was the two heart troubles that killed her.
This was written after rereading "The Fellowship of the Ring"--
Lord of the Rings: Poem Form
The Fellowship of the Ring
Up in the Shire, where they're all half-grown
Where they dwell in holes in the hills green and brown
Gandalf was late coming with the fireworks
But he came in time, and created sparks!
Bilbo Baggins was eleventy-one
The party was a lot of fun
With everyone full from food and drink
Of the evil present, no one would think
He said at last his great big Speech
Many manners and etiquette he did breach
But at the end, as he was done
He vanished with a flash and ran off home
He left on his trip to mountains tall
And valleys wide and Dwarves' halls
He found the Fair in Rivendell
But left the Ring where Frodo dwells
“Keep it secret; keep it safe,”
Gandalf leaned in, whispering to Frodo with haste.
“I'm going to my leader, the great Wizard wise
To see what we can do about the Dark Lord's spies.”
Frodo lived in peace for awhile
but then he found himself without a smile
The Nazgul had taken up to the skies
and were searching for the Ring with hisses and cries.
Gandalf insisted he make for Bree
“It's the only place safe for your company!”
Frodo met Strider, a Ranger of the North,
Who would save him from Man, Wraith, and Orc.
They were headed for Weathertop, the great Amon Sul,
Where Men of old could watch o'er the moor
They could see far and wide all across that land
But it had fallen into disrepair by the Dark Lord's hand.
The Hobbits set up camp in a nice little hollow
Not seen by anyone, not a finch or swallow
But the Wraiths caught up, called by the Ring
And attacked the four, not daunted by Sting.
Strider came up, like a King of Old,
And his face was full of fury terrifying to behold
He seemed full of light, a lion ready to roar
But once the Wraiths left he became small once more.
The Witch-King of Angmar drove his sword
Through Frodo's left shoulder, while the rest of his horde
Had kept the others busy, they didn't know
That Frodo had put on the Ring and the Witch-King spoke
Where the heck was Gandalf? The three hobbits asked
And Strider said he may have already passed
Three days ago, from the look of this rune
Let's hope that up here he did not meet his doom
They fled to Rivendell, where the Elves call home
And Arwen came to fetch Frodo alone
She outrode the Wraiths up to the Fords
And the Wraiths were washed away from the shores.
As Elrond extracted the Morgul-blade shard
Embedded in Frodo's shoulder, Gandalf came up, riding hard
Saruman turned traitor, he warned them all;
He had turned and answered Mordor's call.
“Oh, what will we do?” asked the Hobbits four
“We cannot make it all the way to Mordor!”
They held a High Council in Rivendell then,
To find a team to trek over hill, knoll, and glen.
Frodo whispered, “I will go,” and much to his surprise
He would be accompanied by Gandalf most wise.
And Strider with sword and Legolas with bow;
Gimli with axe and Boromir with his horn to blow.
The four Hobbits short, with their Wizard guide,
And two Men and an Elf and a Dwarf by their side,
Formed the Fellowship of the Ring, the second group of Nine,
To rival even the group by the Dark Lord's design.
They found out also on that infamous day,
That Stider wasn't a lone Ranger like they say,
He was the descendant of Isildur of Gondor,
Heir to the throne, though he chose to wander.
They made for the Pass of Rohan, but the crebain blocked that,
And it went too close to Isengard, where Saruman sat,
So they made for the mountain Caradhras tall,
But then the great peak began to fall.
Caradhras was breaking, and rocks were plummeting down,
And Legolas leaped up from the ground,
saying, “There's a fell voice on the air!” to all that could hear,
And to which Gandalf turned a listening ear.
“Saruman!” he cried. “What the devilry is this?”
You betray us and now you seek to keep us from our quest!”
He added some wizardry and spells of his own,
And Saruman, giving up, let them backtrack down.
“We cannot go that way, certainly not, oh no,”
Said Legolas walking on top of the snow,
“And where else can we turn? The North? The South?”
“Nay, said Gimli, “But if you hear me out,
“I will tell you one other way we could go,
Underneath the trees and hills and snow,
Away from the spies and deadly foes.
To Moria! To Moria let us go!”
Gandalf sighed; his face gray,
He proclaimed that there was no other way.
“We'll have to go,” he whispered with regret.
“But there is danger there that we have seldom thought of yet.”
They trekked down to Moria, the great halls of stone,
Hollowed out by dwarves in ages long ago,
The Mines of Moria are famous, but some say
That they're cursed by the one they call Durin's Bane.
A creature of fire, of doom, of death,
It resides in Moria, woken by the breath
Of living creatures once more roaming the halls
Casting lantern-light on the once dark, dark walls.
They met on the bridge of Khazad-dum,
Gandalf, Wizard, and Balrog, creature of doom,
“You shall not pass! Never!” he cried,
But he fell, and he told them, “You fools! Fly!”
Gandalf had wanted Aragorn to lead them then,
And they made for the safe woods of Lothlorien
Where they met Galadriel, Lady of Light,
And she listened to them and heard of their plight.
Frodo looked into the Mirror with her,
And saw what had not yet been seen nor heard,
He saw the Shire, his home, his heart,
Being taken over by the Lord of the Dark.
“What can I do?” he cried, uncertain
Of whether or not the final curtain
For the last act of the great play of the Shire
Had fallen yet, or was still hanging higher.
“You can destroy it,” she whispered, and he offered the Ring
To her, and it seemed the air began to sing
As she grew great and terrible as the dawn,
But she refused to take it, for its hold on her would be strong.
“It must be you,” she insisted. “Me?”
Frodo asked. “I'm not at all ready!
“I'm just a little Hobbit from the Shire afar,
Me? No, I can't. I'm much too small.”
“No one is too small to save the world,”
she said, and she turned without another word.
She gave them gifts as they departed
All of them downtrodden and heavy-hearted.
They passed through wood and field and fen,
Across moor and plain and gorge and glen
They found Rauros tall and made camp there,
For they heard the Orcs and trembled with fear.
Aragorn found the high seat Amon Hen
And sat upon it, then rose again
For it gave no better council than Elrond wise,
And he looked over the land and then looked to the skies.
He looked in time to see a splotch,
Getting bigger all the time, now more than a dot,
But a monster with wings and a fell rider,
And still it grew ever larger and wider.
Legolas knocked a single arrow
And pulling it back, he let it go
Up past the trees and birds it would fly,
Until it hit its target high up in the sky.
He shouldered his bow again and turned around
Saying, “They're no longer just on the ground,
I've stopped something but that was just his steed,
The Nazgul are getting powerful indeed.”
The Orcs caught up and attacked right then,
having chased the group up, down, and up again
The hills and vales and valleys low
But still they had a long way to go
To Mordor, though it seemed these Orcs would make sure
That they would never get there ever, or worse,
Slaughter them and take the Ring,
Which would, of course, be the end of everything.
Aragorn and Boromir, the two Men tall,
Stood back to back and let their blows fall
And cut down Orcs left and right,
Until Boromir left did the two Men ever think of flight.
Boromir was taken by the Ring,
TO him it meant everything
And he wanted it for himself, for his very own,
Which caused him to leave battle and track Frodo down.
He fought Frodo for it, but Frodo got away,
And ran to the boats, and with Sam still on the bay,
Tried to escape, but Sam caught up,
And rode away with Frodo down the River, and then what?
Legolas and Gimli found Aragorn down
On his knees, and Legolas said with a frown,
“Are you ill? Wounded? What did you do?”
And Aragorn stood up, and they saw and they knew,
That Boromir had been slain in battle at last,
And though he was mighty, the Orcs were too fast,
So they sent him down the falls on a boat,
With the swords of his enemies down by his foot
And his mighty shield on his chest and his hair spread out,
He looked in his glory, and they sent him down
The great falls of Rauros, and sang a song
About his glory and mighty life long.
And they turned away and went back to the woods,
And Legolas stopped and looked through the goods
Then looked up and said with dismay
“Where are the little Hobbits? I cannot find the boat at the cay.”
Aragorn sighed and said in a low tone,
“Frodo and Sam have gone on alone.
I let them go, it will be easier with two
Than five of us to follow through.
“But,” he said, “I intend
To help them even if from five or ten
Or one hundred thousand leagues away,
And I hope you will too, though that they won't need us, I pray.
“Now, about the other two,
Merry the bold and Pippin the true,
The Orcs captured them and took them west,
Towards Isengard, or Rohan at best.
“Who will go with me west, I ask?
Who will carry the burden and shoulder the task?
You must be strong, and loyal, and brave,
For we will run through the night and on through the day!”
“I will,” said Gimli,”
“And I,” said Legolas,
And they all turned and started running through the woods and far to the west,
To find their friends who were stolen by he who at Isengard rests.
Message from Saruman:
Ha ha ha! You three companions bold,
Who run over field and plain and Wold,
who are you to think that you can stop the power
Created by the union of the Two Towers?
Duh duh duhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
Hope you enjoy them!
Sincerely, Geekwad :)
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