Last Ship Long Gone

What was lost when Tolkien's last ships left for the West?

Empty shores whose waves bereft
Reach endlessly toward thee,
Seabirds cry their long lament
For those across the sea.

Tree and root remember thee
And miss thy absent hands;
Wind sings plaintive melody:
You have left alone these lands.

Where now the ones who waked our hearts
And gave our world a voice,
Who sang beneath the newborn stars,
Then made our orphan choice?

These lonely shores are less somehow
Without thy elven song.
Come back! Refresh our weary world
With rest from yearning long.