I come from haunts of coot and hern, I make a sudden sally,And sparkle out among the fern, To bicker down a valley.
By thirty hills I hurry down, Or slip between the ridges,By twenty thorps, a little town, And half a hundred bridges.
Till last by Phillip"s farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.
I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles, I bubble into eddying bays,I babble on the pebbles.
With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set With willow-weed and mallow.
I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.
Drawn by W.S. Wemyss
The Brook
I wind about, and in and out, With here a blossom sailing,And here and there a lusty trout, And here and there a grayling,And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silvery waterbreak Above the golden gravel,And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.
I steal by lawns and grassy plots, I slide by hazel covers;I move the sweet forget-me-nots That grow for happy lovers.
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance, Among my skimming swallows;I make the netted sunbeam dance Against my sandy shallows.
Drawn by W.S. Wemyss
"Men may come and men may go."
I murmur under moon and stars In brambly wildernesses;I linger by my shingly bars; I loiter round my cresses;And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.
- Lord Tennyson
Author.-Alfred Tennyson (1818-92), was born in England, and completed his education at Cambridge. He practised verse-making from his early years, and spent his life at it. He was appointed Poet-Laureate in 1850. His poems to a considerable extent embody the philosophic and religious thought of his time. His principal poems are-The Princess, In Memoriam. Idylls of the King, and a number of well-known shorter lyrics.
General Notes.-Here we have Tennyson at his favourite device ofmaking the sound imitate the sense. Which of the stanzas or lines are most like the flow or babble or action of a brook? What are coot, hern, trout grayling, shingly bars? Find a suitable air for this poem; it is a true lyric, How dancingly happy does it move along ! Compare Happy Creek, by John Bernard O"Hara, and The Tide River, by Charles Kingsley. What other poems do you know about creeks and rivers and seas? Does a brook go on for ever?
Suggestions for Verse-speaking.-What two lines form a refrain?
Notice that they divide the poem into four parts, each part describing a different stage in the brook"s course. Divide the class into four sections, and let each section speak one part of the poem. If desired, the sections can be divided into three or four sub-sections, according to the number of stanzas in each part. Each sub-section can then speak one stanza, the whole section coming in at the two-line refrain. Draw the brook"s course on the floor, and arrange the speakers along it in the right order.