Following is my own (very minor!) adaptation of J.R.R.Tolkien's walking poem which I sing to my sons at night. This poem appears in various forms both in The Hobbit and in LOTR. I have not yet committed to memory the version sung by Frodo in the chapter "Three Is Company" — it's stanzas are a different format to those sung/spoken by Bilbo, and do not fit easily to the tune sung by Bilbo in the LOTR movie, nor to the tune sung by The Starlit Jewel which you can find on youtube. I might fiddle with them one day and create my own tune to use as a chorus or a coda.

Anyway, here it is. I have taken both of the versions which Bilbo recites in LOTR and put the stanzas from The Hobbit in the middle. I like how it ends with "My evening-rest and sleep to meet". The boys may get the hint one day...

    The Road goes ever on and on

    Down from the door where it began.

    Now far ahead the Road has gone,

    And I must follow, if I can,

    Pursuing it with eager feet,

    Until it joins some larger way

    Where many paths and errands meet.

    And whither then? I cannot say.



    Roads go ever ever on,

    Over rock and under tree,

    By caves where never sun has shone,

    By streams that never find the sea;

    Over snow by winter sown,

    And through the merry flowers of June,

    Over grass and over stone,

    And under mountains in the moon.



    Roads go ever ever on

    Under cloud and under star,

    Yet feet that wandering have gone

    Turn at last to home afar.

    Eyes that fire and sword have seen

    And horror in the halls of stone

    Look at last on meadows green

    And trees and hills they long have known.



    The Road goes ever on and on

    Out from the door where it began.

    Now far ahead the Road has gone,

    Let others follow it who can!

    Let them a journey new begin,

    But I at last with weary feet

    Will turn towards the lighted inn,

    My evening-rest and sleep to meet.