Tolkien Reading Day

Today is Tolkien Reading Day. The Tolkien Society explains that the date was chosen because 3/25 is the anniversary of the fall of Sauron. The theme for this year is Tolkien's Seafarers -not one of the major themes I think of when I think of Tolkien, but then I've only read The Hobbit,The Trilogy and Tom Bombadil and a couple of shorter works, having mired up in The Silmarillion and never struggled all the way through.

Here's the last stanza from The Last Ship, the last poem in Tolkien's The Adventures of Tom Bombadil:

Year still after year flows
+++down the Seven Rivers;
cloud passes, sunlight glows,
+++reed and willow quivers
at morn and eve, but never more
+++westward ships have waded
in mortal waters as before,
+++and their song has faded.