The Tolkien-themed Blues

1. Blues Stanza
2. Blues Sonnet

Okay kiddies... time for a bit of poetic structure again.  Thanks again to Lewis Turco's Book of Forms!

This is small (but we'll use it for a building block in the next one) the Blues Stanza.
The blues stanza is a triplet (3 lines) from the Afro-American tradition of poems/songs of lamenting and complaint in which:

Line 2 is an incremental repetition of line 1 (the same concept, but elaborated on)
Line 3 is the climactic parallel. (Oh woe!)

All 3 lines rhyme, with each one building on the previous one, and the 'volume' goes up on the complaint with each line so the pattern could be shown as:
A
a
a

Verses then continue in this manner, Aaa, Bbb, Ccc, etc.
- Primula
Just give it your best shot - we're all just a learnin' as we go...
*A small hobbit climbs up on the nearby table and sings*

A finger's missin' from my hand,
Don't got ten fingers, done lost one from my hand,
Can't play piano, no, no spinet nor baby grand.

I was a strugglin' by that Crack,
Oh, a mighty strugglin', thinkin' I'm never goin' back,
And then that creature made my hand a snack!

Woooo--aaaahhh....

I got the nine-finger blues,
I don't got ten fingers no more blues,
No more Ring, no more finger, paid my dues!
 - Primula


Gimli on the Shore

So long ago, across the waves, a single strand of hair
In darker times, so long to go, I named it then and there
Now beard cut off from caves and axe, I love her and despair....

Hmm.... ohhhh...woooah.......
uh....can't think of any moah....
Guess this is the end of Gimli on the Shoah...
- Beruthiel

Gamgee Blues

My master’s got a gold Ring
Oh Woe! He’s got a nasty Ring of gold
Gonna get us both kilt before we’re old!

I know what my Gaffer would say
Oh, yes… I can tell you what my ol’ Gaffer’d say
He’d take a ‘tater over a gold Ring any day!

Whoa-oh!
- Lothithil
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Moon Man Blues

When ah woke up this mawn'in, mah thoughts weren't bent on gloom
By the time I washed this ev'nin, I'm singing a diff'rent tune
'Cause my baby left me, for some man up in the moon

Go along you shiny man, don't want to see your face
Go along you shiny man, go to some other place
'cause when you took my baby, man, you left me in disgrace

*ooo-ooo* *ooo-ooo* you left me in disgrace.
- Beruthiel

I'm an Elf, whoa-oh! from the faraway Green
Oh, yes, I'm an Elf--like you've never seen
No matter how much fightin' I do--I'm always clean!
--yeah-yeah!

I'm a Dwarf, oh lord! I'm a Dwarf from the North
I'm as tough as they come, yes, and I carry my worth
Though it is said that I lack a degree of mirth...
--oh, yeah!

We're stuck with each other, bound together in need
Gotta put up with each other, if Middle-earth's to be freed...
But that don't mean we got to like each other, no indeed!
--cha cha cha!
- Lothithil
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* Aragorn: "It is but a shadow and a thought that you love. I can not give you what you seek" *

EOWYN'S BLUES


My man says that it's a shadow
It's a shadow I love so
He can't give me what I seek, no, oh no, oh no, oh no.

He is leaving on the morrow
Oh-h whither will he go?
He will leave me with but sorrow, oh woe, oh woe, oh woe.

He must go, I know, I'll miss him
Never got what I desired
But his time has come, insists he, now to kingdom he's aspired.

Yes, well now, you've heard my story
Other love, one day I'll find
Though my ranger's gone, with glory, he will never leave my mind.
- Ringwraith-Wife
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*RW flips through her collection of blues albums - HOWLING HALDIR - ROSIE COTTON'S LAMENT - BOROMIR'S BLUES - THE STEWARDS STOMP - MORDOR RAG - ORC'IN AT THE ORTHANC - MATHOM MALADY MELODY- ... pulls out her copy of ROCKIN' WITH GOTHMOG and THE ORC-ETTES, adjusts her earphones... presses PLAY*
 

They're Throwin' rocks at me mama, Throwin' rocks all the time
*oh Yeah!*
They're throwin' rocks at me mama, Say the fault is all mine
*uh huh!*
Guess I shoulda' left those heads on... oh what fun, I'm such slime
*You so right brother*

Minas Tirith in terror, I'm a creep in my prime *say it again, man*
Minas Tirith in terror, Total war, so sublime *HAH!*
That's why they throw those rocks , mama... I'm a creep in my prime.

*JUST THEN!... An enormous bolder crashes through RW's window.
- Ringwrith-Wife
1. Blues Stanza
2. Blues Sonnet

As it appears we are already rapidly heading that direction, our goal in applying our blues is the Blues Sonnet (Thanks again, Lewis Turco!)


A Blues Sonnet is fourteen lines consisting of four blues stanzas (the triplet rhymed lines we've already practiced)

It is written in iambic pentameter (10 beats per line, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.)

It ends with a heroic couplet.(2 lines, again 10 syllables each)

There is a volta after the last triplet - this means in the last two lines there is a shift in the direction or thought that the rest of the sonnet was pursuing.


The pattern would therefore be something like:

AAa
BBb
CCc
DDd
ee
- Primula
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Tater Blues

Them Ruffians trampled my taters again,
Oafish Big People trespassin' again,
No understandin' of taters, those Men!

Bruised up the leaves an' compacted the soil,
Snapped off some stems! It puts me in a boil!
They got no respect for honest folk's toil.

Comin' with shovels, they're diggin' them up!
Only new taters - they're diggin' them up!
Hit us with shovels, left nothin' for sup!

Why did young Baggins sell off the old Hill?
Nothin' but troubles, bad folk in the Hill,
A-choppin' down trees, an' gardens they kill!

If only Sam and his Master was back,
They'd shove taters up that Ruffian's crack.
- Primula

Hollywood Hobbit Blues

I’ve got a question that’s burning my brain
A question I must ask, I cannot refrain,
Answer me please before I go insane!

They’re makin’ movies, their writin’ the script
They’re picking directors (the coin was flipped)
But when it comes to casting, I hope we don’t get gypped!

Who’s going to play the characters we adore?
(I know we went through all of this before)
What kind of surprises have we got in store?

With Wizard established, who, we inquire,
Will play the role of Bilbo Baggins, Esquire?
And where the heck will the build the new Shire?

Will thirteen Dwarves come to life for the show?
Is there enough time for their beards to grow?
Who will they be? (not sure I want to know)

Gollum and Smaug and the Mountain and Laketown
If I don’t find out soon, I’m due for a breakdown!
- Beruthiel


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