Class 9 Poetry - 1 The Brook by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Class 9 Poetry - 1 The Brook by Alfred 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 (Interesting) 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 (Mixture) of sound and meaning, the union of pictorial (Graphic) and musical.

I come from haunts (places frequently visited by) of coot (a type of water bird with a white spot on the forehead) and hern (Heron) (another kind of water bird);

I make a sudden sally (emerge suddenly)

And sparkle (Shining) out among the fern (Flower Plant, Vegetation)

To bicker (flow down with a lot of noise) down (Hill) a valley.

5 By thirty (Many) hills I hurry down,

Or slip (Passes) between the ridges (Mountain Ranges),

By twenty (Many) thorpes (A type of village), a little town,

And half a hundred (Many) bridges.

Till last by Philip's (A Person who own the farm) farm I flow (Passes through)

10 To join the brimming (Full of margin, till edges) river,

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on for ever.

I chatter (To make noise) over stony ways,

In little sharps and trebles (High-pitched tunes),

15 I bubble into eddying bays (Spiral movement of water),

I babble (Sound mad when one talks jolly) on the pebbles (Shingles, Small rounded stone).

With many a curve my banks I fret (To get angry)

By many a field and fallow (land left uncultivated to regain fertility),

And many a fairy foreland (piece of land that extends into the sea) set

20 With willow-weed (Unwanted grass or plant) and mallow (plant with hairy stems and leaves and pink, white or purple flowers).

I chatter (Making Noise), chatter, as I flow

To join the brimming (Full of margin, till edges) river,

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on for ever.

25 I wind about (To move in zigzag manner), and in and out,

With here a blossom (Flower) sailing (Floating on the surface),

And here and there a lusty trout (a big freshwater fish),

And here and there a grayling (another type of fish),

And here and there a foamy (soapy) flake (A piece of foam)

30 Upon me, as I travel

With many a silvery waterbreak (White interruption with foam)

Above the golden gravel (Shingle, Small rounded stone),                                                 

And draw them all along (With me), and flow                                                                          

To join the brimming (Full of margin, till edges) river                                                         

35 For men may come and men may go,                                                                                  

But I go on for ever.

I steal (To pass silently) by lawns and grassy plots,

I slide (Slip) by hazel covers (a small tree or bush)

I move the sweet forget-me-nots (a type of flower)

40 That grow for happy lovers.

I slip, I slide, I gloom (To go in dark places), I glance (Sparkle, Shine),

Among my skimming (To pass lightly) swallows (To accept easily without question);

I make the netted (Net) sunbeam (a ray of sunlight trapped in a net) dance

Against my sandy shallows (Sand at the Bottom).          

45 I murmur (Low sound) under moon and stars

In brambly (Thorny plant) wildernesses (Lonely place);

I linger (To move slowly) by my shingly (Covered with Shingle, Small Pabbles) bars;

I loiter (To move aimlessly) round my cresses (Leafy plant growing under water);

And out again I curve and flow

50 To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on for ever.