Chapter 7: The Brook

It comes from the haunts of coot and heron (hills/mountains). It sparkles among the ferns as sunlight reflects on its clear water.

It passes thirty hills, ridges, twenty thorps (villages), a little town, fifty bridges, fields and fallow land, past Philip's farm. It finally joins the brimming (full) river.

As the brook flows in many curves, it gradually wears away (erodes) its banks by rubbing against them.

To suggest the continuous, gay, musical sound of the flowing water — it seems to talk merrily.

'Steal' and 'slide' suggest the brook moving smoothly and quietly. 'The netted sunbeam' is sunlight filtering through leaves in a net-like pattern; it 'dances' on the sandy shallows as the water ripples.

Correct order: 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.

'Bicker' means to flow down noisily. It is used to show the brook's lively, restless, noisy movement.

It is repeated (as a refrain) to emphasise that nature (the brook) is eternal while human life is short and mortal — the central theme of the poem.

The brook itself narrates the poem (personification).

It chatters, babbles, bubbles and murmurs as it flows over pebbles and stones.

A refrain is a repeated line/stanza. Here: 'For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.'

Blossoms, trout, grayling, foamy flakes and sunbeams as it flows.

Coot and hern (heron).

Through the refrain 'men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever', the poet shows that human beings are mortal and short-lived, while nature (the brook/river) flows on eternally. Nature is permanent; man is temporary.

The brook begins in the hills among coots and herons, sparkles among ferns, hurries past thirty hills, twenty villages, a town and fifty bridges, winds past fields, fallow land and Philip's farm, carrying flowers and fish, and finally joins the brimming river.

Through sound-words like chatter, babble, bubble, murmur, and the rhythmic, repeated refrain, the poem imitates the lively, musical sound of flowing water.

ଝରଣା।

dance.