Alfred Tennyson was born August 6th, 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire, fourth of twelve children of George and Elizabeth (Fytche) Tennyson. The poet's grandfather had violated tradition by making his younger son, Charles, his heir, and arranging for the poet's father to enter the ministry. (See the Tennyson Family Tree.) The contrast of his own family's relatively straitened circumstances to the great wealth of his aunt Elizabeth Russell and uncle Charles Tennyson (who lived in castles!) made Tennyson feel particularly impoverished and led him to worry about money all his life.

Among Tennyson's major poetic achievements is the elegy mourning the death of his friend Arthur Hallam, "In Memoriam" (1850). The patriotic poem "Charge of the Light Brigade", published in Maud (1855), is one of Tennyson's best known works, although at first "Maud" was found obscure or morbid by critics ranging from George Eliot to Gladstone. Enoch Arden (1864) was based on a true story of a sailor thought drowned at sea who returned home after several years to find that his wife had remarried. Idylls Of The King ( ) dealt with the Arthurian theme George Eliot

The Brook 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.

1- Tennyson makes the brook narrate its history- the history of its origin, its meandering and uneven journey through forest and hills and open spaces until it joins the 'brimming river' 2--The Brook originates from a source on the highlands filled with mountain forest cover, where the wild birds of coot and hern are found in plenty. Its rushing waters touches all the ferns that grow on its banks till it reaches the open valley.

3-In its initial rushing journey, the brook passes through the slopes of thirty hills and flows beneath more than four dozen bridges. Then it touches twenty different villages before reaching a little town. Before joining the main river, the brook passes by Phillip's farm. As it comes rushing down the hills, its waters produces different musical notes as it dashes against the stony pebbles. 4--The brook makes its presence felt when it passes through the different fields of uncultivated lands and many front lying promontory lands where the weeping willows grow. It winds about with immense power and its cool pleasant waters brings all kinds of fresh water fish to a lively activity

5--The brook forms the foamy flake which is accumulated at the shores where gravels gather in plenty, as it continues to travel down the hills. Sometimes it overflows and incur upon the grassy plots in the lawns. It even overflows to the grounds of Hazel plants and touches the sweet forget-me- nots. All the different sounds and movements that a stream makes as it flows are charmingly conveyed through the words used with an exquisite delicacies of feeling.

6--The trees on the banks, the fish playing about, the blossoms floating on the water, the stretches of darkness and light are vividly reflected on the flowing verse. Above all, the spirit of joy and freedom comes through eloquently. Each morning when the sun rises, the rays and the beams hit the waters and brightly reflect the shiny dance of the active movement of the brook on the sandy banks.

7--When evening sets in and total darkness covers the surroundings of the countryside, the flow of the brook continues to murmur under the light of the moon and stars. The effects of the brook on the shores in the daytime is as much as in the night. Tennyson significantly relates the brook to human life to the sad reflection that man's life is impermanent compared with the relative permanence of a river (men may come and men may go, But I go on forever).

POETIC DEVICES ALLITERATION: sudden sally, Half a hundred, skimming swallows, golden gravel, willow-weeds, fairy foreland, field and fallow ONOMATOPOEIA: bicker, babble, chatter, murmur RHYMING SCHEME: abab

REFRAIN: For men may come and may go, but I go on forever. REPETITION: And here and there a lusty trout, And here and there a grayling. I chatter, chatter PERSONIFICATION: The brook has been personified SYMBOL: Fish=source of life, forget-me- nots=eternal love

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