BY DANIEL KLAWITTER

Give us a pipe and a pint of ale

And we shall regale you

With fantastical tales:

Not allegory, exactly, but

Blessed be the best beguiled.

Here in our private corner

At the Eagle and Child:

Flashing forth our mythologies

Like seraphs shining over Zion.

Did you hear Aslan the talking lion?

And there in the shadows:

The return of the king.

And in the chair on your left

Sits Frodo with his ring.

The Scripture says that faith

Is the evidence of things not seen.

And we inklings have gleaned this truth:

The same fire burns inside the hearth—

In Oxford, Narnia, and Middle-earth.