Analysis of The Brook
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809 – 1892
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 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.
Scheme | abab cdcd eFEF gdgx hehe eFEF ijij xkjk eFEF lmlm nxnd odod eFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (85%) |
Metre | 11111101 1101010 01010101 1101010 11011101 1101010 11010101 0101010 11110111 1101010 11110111 1111110 11010101 010101 1100111 1101010 110011111 1100101 01001011 111010 11010111 1101010 11110111 1111110 11010001 1101010 01010101 0101010 01010101 0111110 11001001 0101010 01110101 1101010 11110111 1111110 11110101 1111010 11010111 1111010 11111111 0111010 1101011 011101 11010101 011 1101111 1101110 01011101 1101010 11110111 1111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,522 |
Words | 305 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 89 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 2,903 Views
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"The Brook" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1072/the-brook>.
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