What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first published poem called?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s first published poem was called The Battle of the Eastern Field.

The poem appeared in 1911 in the school magazine of King Edward’s School in Birmingham, where Tolkien was a pupil. It predates the publication of The Hobbit by more than two decades and shows that verse was an early part of his literary activity.

Tolkien wrote poetry throughout his life, both independently and as part of his imagined histories. His poems range from short songs in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to longer works influenced by medieval narrative traditions. He also published scholarly and creative poems in venues outside his major novels.

This fact is often obscured by attention to his first book, The Hobbit, published in 1937. A first published poem is not the same as a first book, first Middle-earth story, or first work written in an invented language. Bibliographies also list many works by title and date across different editions.