Try... Try now!

"The Shadow of the Past" is filled with wonderful moments:  Frodo gathering information about orcs, trolls, and the Dark Tower; Sam's reference to Tree-men as a foreshadowing of the Old Forest and the Ents; Gandalf and Frodo musing over the One Ring by the fireplace.  A particular highlight of the chapter, for me, is one of Tolkien's most nuanced moral reflections.  Frodo argues that Gollum deserves death.  Gandalf replies:  "Deserves it!  I daresay he does.  Many that live deserve death.  And some that die deserve life.  Can you give it to them?  Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.  For even the wise cannot see all ends."

This passage always impressed me as an argument against capital punishment, but the style, not just the substance, of the statement is intriguing.  The strong alliteration adds to the power of the words: deserves... daresay.. does... deserve death.. die deserve.... Tolkien is a master of elegant repetition, and numerous examples of it can be found in this chapter.  The introductory poem is repeated and expanded here, so that the phrase "One Ring" echoes through Bag End, ominously.

Consider, too, Sam's statement about the elves, where Tolkien explicitly draws our attention to the musical elements of repetition:

"They are sailing, sailing, sailing over the Sea, they are going into the West and leaving us," said Sam, half chanting the words, shaking his head sadly and solemnly.

Note the use of alliteration throughout the passage.  Furthermore, the repetition of sailing invokes the motions of waves, and, as a kind of chant, is suitable to the mystical and elegiac qualities of the elves.  Other minor examples abound.  Gandalf speaks of "Light, light of Sun and Moon..."  Gollum "hated the dark, and he hated light more: he hated everything."  Even the brief repetition of "Try... Try now!" when Gandalf suggests that Frodo throw the Ring into the fire creates tremendous dramatic power, particularly as the text breaks right at that point.

One can imagine Tolkien reading pasages to C.S. Lewis at the Eagle and Child.  The musical repetition in the text serves many purposes -- but it must have achieved an even greater effect when spoken aloud.