LOTR Poem: Water and Flame

[martasfic]

Title: Water and Flame
Summary: Denethor ponders the future of the West after a bout with the palantir.
Rating: Teen (violent imagery)
Word Count: 67
Timeline: Late Third Age (bookverse)

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Some say the West will end with water,
Some say in flame.
And if dear Atalante's slaughter
Should foretell, I hold with water.
For as the wave from furthest West
Ascended Meneltarma's height,
Gift once possessed
Proved then our plight.

But fate denies an end so grand
To Western sons;
Orodruin's ash expands
And e'er we start, the East has won.
For I have seen it in my stone:
The burning plains, the Cruelest Eye.
We stand alone;
The West shall die.

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Author's Notes
[1] This poem is written in the style of Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice".
[2] ATALANTE: Alternate name for Numenor.
[3] MENELTARMA: mountain on Numenor
[4] GIFT: A reference both to Numenor itself (a gift of the Valar to the Men who had fought against Sauron) and to death (which was originally a gift of Iluvatar to all Men).
[5] ORODRUIN: Mount Doom