If I were to compile a list of my top ten favorite chapters in the series, The Wandmaker would certainly be on it. I sometimes worry about my lack of outward emotion when reading heart-rending scenes, but this chapter made me cry, and it makes me cry every time I re-read it. It's a turning point in the book, and it contains some of the most beautiful passages Rowling has ever written. Rest in peace, Dobby...
A Free Elf
The blossoms have begun to bloom
Upon your tiny grave,
A rainbow bursting through the gloom
To honor one so brave.
A rainbow that reminds me of
The vow you didn't keep,
The promise that you broke for love.
Devotion ran too deep.
"Don't try to save my life again."
Well, Dobby, you demurred.
You rescued seven victims when
Atrocity occurred.
Defiant in the face of fear,
Your courage saved my life
While yours was doomed to disappear
By Bellatrix's knife.
You sparked the purifying sorrow
Making straight my path.
Your constancy was mine to borrow,
Shielding me from wrath.
I'll search no more for wands of power,
Feed no more off rage.
I'll let my better nature flower,
Sweet as thyme and sage.
The love you showed could not be greater.
Rest contentedly,
My liberated liberator,
Living, dying free.
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2 comments:
Oh I love this one too! Especially this stanza...
I'll search no more for wands of power,
Feed no more off rage.
I'll let my better nature flower,
Sweet as thyme and sage.
What a gift these poems are, Erin, as we savor and reflect on the book. Thank you!
I wept through this chapter too. You're right, it's very key and one of Rowling's best. I couldn't agree more.
In some ways it was all the more powerful because Dobby, bless him, had always lent such a lightness and comedy to the proceedings.
And I love how you remember that Harry once said to him, somewhat sarcastically, not to try to save his life again. When he was digging Dobby's grave, I'll bet he did remember that. And it must've seemed like a lifetime ago.
Could Harry have guessed, way back at the end of the second book, what a powerful role Dobby would have in the final outcome of his valiant struggle? And for that matter, the Malfoys; how ironic that these people from whom he liberated Dobby, and from whom Dobby liberated him, should also wind up aiding him.
I've been thinking about how different characters match up against Lord of the Rings characters. Harry's like Frodo, Dumbledore like Gandalf, Fred and George like Merry and Pippin - and maybe Hermione and Ron too, though I tend to think of them, Hagrid and Dobby all as more Sam-like, occupying different aspects of his character.
"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13
This, I think, is Dobby's lasting legacy...
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