Dark Are the Clouds about the North

Dark Are the Clouds about the North is a poem written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1915 at Whittington Heath.

Poem excerpt

Dark are the clouds about the North
And a pale flare's in the sky,
As Orion with his flaming belt
Strides dazzlingly by: —
O! can you see the same far light
And swinging constellations bright
Afar, where you and I
Beyond the weir of silver streams
In a sunlit boat all oared with dreams
Went gliding up the mere?

Background

On September 14 of 1915, Tolkien wrote his first unnamed version of the poem.

Tolkien followed the initial draft with four more unnamed versions. It was only after Tolkien wrote the fifth and final version that he gave it the name Dark Are the Clouds about the North and wrote the date of the first version on it. Tolkien eventually made a professional typescript of the poem, inscribing "Whittington Heath Lichfield Oct[ober] 1915" on it.

In October, Dark Are the Clouds about the North was among some poems that were sent to G.B. Smith. On the 24th, Smith sent a letter "from the Wisemans' house in London" to Tolkien thanking him for the poems, as he had apparently "never read anything in the least like them, and certainly nothing better than the best", further noting that he was "particularly impressed by The Happy Mariners and Dark Are the Clouds about the North.

Two days later, Tolkien wrote a letter to Edith, mentioning to her that the sad poem he wrote for her was appraised by G.B. Smith.

In September 2024, the poem was published for the first time as entry 38 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.