The Brook

COME from haunts of coot and hern, I make a sudden sally, And sparkle out among the fern, To bicker down a valley. THE BROOK By thirty hills I hurry down Or slip between the ridges By twenty thorps, 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 forever 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, Andmany 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 forever Iwind about , and in and out, With here a blossom sailing Andhere and there a lusty trout, Andhere and there agrayling And here and there a foamy flake Upon me, as I travel With many a silvery waterbreak Above the golden gravel, THE BUGLE SONG And draw them all along, and flow To join the brimming river, For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever. 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 ; Ilinger 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 forever.