This is actually one of the many poems from The Tolkien Reader which are attributed to the Red Book. The poem is entitled The Sea-Bell but it is noted that at the top, hand-scrawled, is Frodo's Dreme. "That is remarkable, and though the piece is most unlikely to have been written by Frodo himself, the title shows that is was associated with the dark and despairing dreams which visited him in March and October during his last three years" (p. 194, The Tolkien Reader).
It is a dark poem indeed. The author is searching, it seems for peace, and ever it evades him. The last stanza's end like this:
"Never again, as in sad lane, in blind alley and in long street
ragged I walk. To myself I talk; for still they speak not, men that I meet" (p. 247, The Tolkien Reader).
Perhaps this was hobbit lore surrounding Frodo or maybe he described his dreams in detail. Either way it's a fitting last reference to Frodo who walked a dark road but, even so, came as he could.
Middle-earth timeline: Fourth Age
Today's reading comes from: The Tolkien Reader, pages 194 and 244-247
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