Thanks for the response! I scanned through your posts, but I did not find any about your poem? Have you put it up anywhere? Also, I was surprised to see your large collection of posts on economics, and I plan on digging into those and hopefully using them with my kids.

Regarding:

A friendship forged four decades past,
tested and tried, true to the end.

The second line was because @geekorner told me the original was bad. :D

Concerning meter, I really like the two lines that you wrote, but I am really aiming for Tolkien's style. Right now I am not so good at it, so things aren't as balanced as they should be. In order to do the style, I have had to pass up some great alliterations (such as your 'bloodlusty blare'), because the fourth stressed syllable should not alliterate with the third.

That pattern of alliteration, when done right, gives the lines a flow where the last part is kind of a drop-off, and the next line picks the pace back up. While it doesn't give the same feeling as a set meter, it definitely gives it a clear and distinct sound, which is felt when reading the poetry aloud.

Maybe the best comparison I can give of how it feels is that, for example, your lines:

Joyously jeering and greeting marines
with a maddening, bloodlusty blare!

have a kind of music to them, while Tolkien's:

Arthur eastward in arms purposed
his war to wage on the wild marches,
over seas sailing to Saxon lands,
from the Roman realm ruin defending.

have the feel of a chant. That doesn't quite state how I feel, but I am unsure how else to describe it.