The DT Ending - Predictable by Browning? (spoilers!)

[michal]

I've reread the Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Cams" for another thread, and couldn't help noticing that the last part really reflects Mr. King's ending.

"There they stood, ranged along the hillsides, met
To view the last of me, a living frame
For one more picture! in a sheet of flame
I saw them and I knew them all. And yet
Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set,
And blew. "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came."

The poem ends, almost exactly as it started (like the book), the horn is appears again (like the book) and creates a feeling of both ending and continuity (like the book). "I saw them and I knew them all" - because I've been here before.
Do you suppose reading this now, that this is where Mr. King took his inspiration for his own ending of the book?

[Big Matt]

I am currently re reading the series and given the above and the arc of the story, I agree that it was inevitable to end this way and feel that Mr King took his inspiration from the Poem. However I also feel that the story itself and how it evolved also led to the ending.