Abusing poetry, and why?

This work of art has to be one of my favorite poems:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.


Tolkien really captures the whole story of The Lord of the Rings in this poem, and the imagery is beautiful. From the consideration of precious gold that seems mundane and lacking glitter to timeless trees and reforged swords bringing back a royal reign, he hearkens the reader to hope that one day things will be better. But really, I'm not blogging today about the greatness of this poem.

For you see, something about this poem has irked me for quite a long time. I have noticed that bumper stickers have been made that try to quote a part of this poem, except that those stickers read differently than the original poem.

It states, "Not all who wander are lost" with a hippie-esque setting to the background.

Now, not only is this slightly different in omitting one word, but the quote does a grand injustice to Tolkien's poetic genius. Just imagine that line as it reads within the original poem.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.


With "those" removed, the rhythm of the poem is utterly destroyed. The normal reading of the poem undulates with grace and beauty, and this one is like a train derailed. And don't think it's just some past or present pot smokers ruining the poem. The community as a whole as neglected the goodness of Tolkien's original phrase. For, if you google "Not all who wander are lost" roughly 272,000 responses appear. In contrast, the actual phrase, "Not all those who wander are lost" garners a trifle of approximately 241,000 hits are found. Therefore, the incorrect version outnumbers the correct one. For shame, humanity!


In thinking about this preference for a "those-less" rendition, it struck me that the real abuse of Tolkien (and poetry in general) is its neglect. If more people cherished the words as Tolkien saw fit to print them they would catch the utter dissonance of a "those-less" poem, and there would be no way that google searches would favor that form.

And so for that matter, I quote the poem and want to think about how great it is.

Speaking of poetry, here's another great one by Keats.....

Give me women, wine, and snuff
Until I cry out "hold, enough!"
You may do so sans objection
Till the day of resurrection:
For, bless my beard, they aye shall be
My beloved Trinity.