I’ve gone this far and not mentioned one of my all time favorite pieces of poetry.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
~JRRT
I like that immensely.
First of course is the lore. That bit of lyricism as a part of T’s immense lore and worldbuilding adds depth that cannot be achieved any other way. The awesome thing about this poem is that the three elvish rings aren’t just interesting bits of imagery, but there’s story there. There’s history. The Nine for mortal men mean something. The short poem is thus a lot deeper, and when you read it with some knowledge of T’s work, there’s a lot of stuff and connections there.
Second is the simple scheme, even meter, and imagery itself. There’s no barrier to understanding in unnecessary complexity. The Dark Lord on his dark throne is a great picture, not just physically, big dude on evil looking throne, but emotionally. I get a feeling from that. Mordor where the Shadows lie: yeah, let’s party.