Sing It Again, Bilbo!

One of the important parts of being a teen and having your own room is decorating its walls with posters.  Of course, Mom or Dad might think your were defacing, not decorating.

One of the many posters I bought and hung up, with no parental conflict at all, was one containing "Bilbo's Last Song."

Here is the text:

Bilbo's Last Song
(At the Grey Havens)

Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar
I'll find the havens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-Earth at last.
I see the Star above your mast!

You can read about it here, too.

Below is a Pauline Baynes poster of the poem.

Now, I do not have the poster any more.  But, the little sticker from the shrinkwrap?  THAT I have!

From this extreme enlargement of a sticker that's about three inches high, you can tell that the sylvan image is not the same as on the Baynes poster.

Here's an image of the same poster I had, for sale online.

I wonder why there were two posters of this very strictly copyrighted poem?

Au revoir until Thursday, Christmas!