There, peeping among the cloud-wrack
above a dark tower high up in the mountains,
Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while.
The beauty of it smote his heart,
as he looked up out of the forsaken land,
and hope returned to him.
For like a shaft, clear and cold,
the thought pierced him that in the end
the Shadow was only
a small and passing thing:
there was light and high beauty
for ever beyond its reach.
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