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Brook Poems

Table of Contents

  1. The Brook by Lizzie F. Baldy
  2. The Brook by Alfred Tennyson
  3. The Brook by John B. Tabb
  4. A Brook by Raymond Garfield Dandridge
  5. The Brook in February by Sir Charles G. D. Roberts
  6. The Tree That Lives Beside the Brook by Annette Wynne
  7. I Like the Brook by Annette Wynne
  8. Fishes in the Brook by Friedrich Fröbel
  9. When the Brook Trout Leaps by Anonymous
  10. Pebbles by Frank Dempster Sherman
  11. Songs by Annette Wynne
  12. The Dissatisfied Angler Boy by Hannah Flagg Gould

  1. The Brook

    by Lizzie F. Baldy

    Oh, stay, little brook, as your waters flow by,
    Rolling swiftly the old bridge under;
    Do you ever list to the passionate cry
    Of hearts that are torn asunder?
    Are all of your days 'neath this summery sky
    Filled with joy, you clear, happy rover?
    Don't you think you could tell me a tale if you'd try
    Of some one and somebody's lover?

    Ah! I know very well, you mischievous elf,
    Of last night, how four went out walking,
    For one of that party, I think, was myself,
    And the others?—ah! well, they were talking
    Of the beautiful things in youth's rosy flush;
    Perhaps there were vows they were making—
    Not thinking the future's cold mandate may crush
    Each thought till the heart seemeth breaking.

    The stars may look down, yet they never will tell,
    For how many secrets they're keeping!
    And the zephyrs flit by, yet whisper "'T is well,"
    Down, down through night's corridors sweeping.
    Each life has its dream of beauty and love,
    Where the future is all sunny weather,
    And Peace, like a beautiful, white-winged dove,
    May fold all her plumes together—

    And promise to stay in your heart of hearts,
    And dwell in yonr home forever,
    If you bind him close with Love's beautiful arts,
    So firmly no doubt can sever.
    The mountains look down cold, calmly to-night,
    Untouched by the same old, old story;
    Yet the stars shed around us a softer light,
    Painting life in primeval glory.

    Ah! well for the present; the future wall come,
    The night will be merged in to-morrow,
    And Fate only can tell where shall be our home,
    As she gives to us joy or sorrow.
    Yet bravely we'll bear it, whatever it be,
    Until, reaching the cold silent river,
    The cross is laid down, and the soul shall be free,
    Unshackled forever and ever.

  2. The Brook

    by Alfred Tennyson.

    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.

  3. The Brook

    by John B. Tabb

    It is the mountain to the sea
    That makes a messenger of me;
    And, lest I loiter on the way
    And lose what I am sent to say,
    He sets his reverie to song,
    And bids me sing it all day long.
    Farewell! for here the stream is slow,
    And I have many a mile to go.

  4. A Brook

    by Raymond Garfield Dandridge

    Reflecting ragged
    Flecks of white,
    Upon a background blue,
    A living, liquid, ribbon
    Slips, zig-zag,
    Through meadow land.

    Creeping, leaping,
    Sighing, singing,
    Piu Piano
    At even flow,
    Crescendo!
    At the rapids.

  5. The Brook in February

    by Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

    A snowy path for squirrel and fox,
    It winds between the wintry firs.
    Snow-muffled are its iron rocks,
    And o'er its stillness nothing stirs.

    But low, bend low a listening ear!
    Beneath the mask of moveless white
    A babbling whisper you shall hear—
    Of birds and blossoms, leaves and light.

  6. The Tree That Lives Beside the Brook

    by Annette Wynne

    The tree that lives beside the brook,
    May see itself if it should look;
    But perhaps it does not try.
    It would rather see the sky
    Than look into the brook and trace
    The shadows of its leafy face.

  7. I Like the Brook

    by Annette Wynne

    I like the brook, I like the tree,
    The solemn-sounding rolling sea,
    The little roads where children stray,—
    I like to like things all the day.

  8. Fishes in the Brook

    by Friedrich Fröbel

    Merrily in the brooklet clear,
    Swim the bright fishes far and near,
    Now darting, now floating, ever they go,
    Some of them straight, some bent like a bow.

  9. When the Brook Trout Leaps

    by Anonymous

    The slender dew-tipped grasses are trembling in the breeze,
    The east is blushing rosy red beneath the Sun's caress,
    The wild rose bends to kiss the stream—but only Nature sees,
    And the reed-harps play weird music just above the water cress.

    The quail is calling loudly where the tangled bushes grow,
    The startled frogs are diving, and the noisy blackcaress bird scolds.
    The stealthy rat is hunting where the deeper waters flow,
    And the bees are sipping honey that the wild plum's blossom holds.

    The air is overladen with the wild-flowers' fragrant scent'
    The morning star is fading' and the sharp-eyed night owl sleeps;
    Myriad birds are singing to the stream's accompaniment
    And the world is full of gladness—when the brook trout leaps.

  10. Pebbles

    by Frank Dempster Sherman

    Out of a pellucid brook
    Pebbles round and smooth I took;
    Like a jewel, every one
    Caught a color from the sun, —
    Ruby red and sapphire blue,
    Emerald and onyx too,
    Diamond and amethyst, —
    Not a precious stone I missed;
    Gems I held from every land
    In the hollow of my hand.

    Workman Water these had made;
    Patiently through sun and shade,
    With the ripples of the rill
    He had polished them, until
    Smooth, symmetrical and bright,
    Each one sparkling in the light
    Showed within its burning heart
    All the lapidary’s art;
    And the brook seemed thus to sing:
    Patience conquers everything!

  11. Songs

    by Annette Wynne

    I
    The brook has a way to spend the day
    Lords and ladies never know,
    Going where it wants to go,
    Running where it wants to run,
    In the shadows, in the sun,
    Where the little minnows play,
    That's the way to spend the day,
    Says the brook.

    II
    The bird has a way to spend the day
    Different from the brook and you,
    Flying where the skies are blue,
    Over turrets, chimneys, winging
    All its heart in small songs flinging,
    Every note and twist is play,
    That's the way to spend the day,
    Says the bird.

  12. The Dissatisfied Angler Boy

    by Hannah Flagg Gould

    I'm sorry they let me go down to the brook,
    I'm sorry they gave me the line and the hook,
    And I wish I had staid at home with my book.
    I'm sure 't was no pleasure to see
    That poor, little, harmless, suffering thing
    Silently writhe at the end of the string;
    Or to hold the pole, while I felt him swing
    In torture, and all for me!

    'T was a beautiful, speckled and glossy trout,
    And when from the water I drew him out
    On the grassy bank, as he floundered about,
    It made me shivering cold,
    To think I had caused so much needless pain;
    And I tried to relieve him, but all in vain;
    Oh! never, as long as I live, again
    May I such a sight behold!

    O, what would I give once more to see
    The brisk little swimmer alive and free,
    And darting about, as he used to be,
    Unhurt, in his native brook!
    'T is strange how people can love to play
    By taking innocent lives away;
    I wish I had stayed at home to-day
    With sister, and read my book.

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