English Poems Index


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 trehles,

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 water break

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.


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.



By Lord Tennyson



About The Poet :

Lord Tennyson (1809-92) was born in Lincolnshire. Poet Laureate for over 40 years, Tennyson is representative of the Victorian age. His skilled craftsmanship and noble ideals retained a large audience for poetry in an age when the novel was engrossing more and more readers. Tennyson's real contribution lies in his shorter poems like The Lady of Shallot, The Princess, Ulysses, The Palace of Art etc. His fame rests on his perfect control of sound, the synthesis of sound and meaning, the union of pictorial and musical.



Words to Know :



Haunts : places frequently visited by

Coot : a type of water bird with a white spot on the forehead

Hem : heron, (another kind of water bird)

Sally : emerge suddenly

Bicker : (here) flow down with a lot of noise

Thorpes : a type of village

Trebles : high pitched tune

Eddying : spiral movement of water

Babble : sound made when one talks gaily

Fallow : land left uncultivated to regain fertility

Foreland : piece of land that extends into the sea

Mallow : plant with hairy stems and leaves and pink white or purple flowers

Lusty trout : a big freshwater fish

Grayling : another type of fish

Hazel : a small tree or bush with edible nuts

Forget-me-nots : a type of flower

Shingly : covered with small rounded pebbles

Cresses : pungent leaved plant like a cabbage