THE BROOK

 

         

 

                             THE BROOK

          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 thorpes, a little town,
          And half a hundred bridges.

          Till last by Philip'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.

          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 ver.

          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.

          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.

 

The Brook is a very famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92). It is a long but highly musical poem in which a brook (a streamlet) tells its journey from one place to another in a playful manner.  It is a poem which describes several natural scenes and sights as lyrically as one could expect from a brook. It shows a contrast between man and nature, the former is short-lived, the latter , that is nature, is eternal.  In this context, the following lines are twice repeated by the Brook:

                        For men may come and men may go

                        But I go on for ever.

According to a literary critic “The main theme of “The Brook” is the contrast between the ephemeral nature of human life and enduring nature, specifically the book itself. The brook personified in the poem represents a constant flow of time and life’s journey , while humans are depicted as temporary figures within that flow.

 

The poem highlights the brook’s persistence and the message that, like the brook , one should continue one’s journey.

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G.R.Kanwal

9^th June 2025