-THE BROOK
Consolidate: [WRITE ALL THE QUESTION/
ANSWERS POETIC DEVICES AND RTC IN YOUR
NOTE BOOK.]
1. Where does the brook come from?
Answer: The brook comes from places frequently
visited by the water birds heron and coots.
2. Why do the waters of the brook sparkle?
Answer: As the sun’s light falls on the waters of
the brook, it gets reflected and sparkles.
3. What do the words “thirty hills”,
“twenty hills” and “half a hundred bridges”
refer to?
Answer: These words refer to the long course or
route of the brook before it joins its destination,
the brimming river.
4. Where does the brook join the river?
Answer: The brook joins the brimming river
when it finally flows past Philip’s farm.
5. What kinds of plants, flowers and
animals does it come across?
Answer: The brook comes across plant life such
as fern, willow-weed, mallow, lawns, grassy plots,
hazel covers and flowers like floating blossoms
and forget-me-not and animal life in the
form of birds such as coot, heron and swallows
and fish like grayling and trout.
6. What are the different ways in which the
sunlight and moonlight affect the brook?
Answer: The sunlight makes the brook sparkle
out among the ferns, and the brook makes
‘netted sunbeam dance’. The brook murmurs
under the moon and stars.
7. What comparison does the poet make
when he states ‘And draw them all along,
and flow….
Answer: Here the poet compares a man and
brook stating that man takes anything on its way
as an obstacle whereas the brook looks on them
as an opportunity to get to the destination.
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LITERARY/ POETIC DEVICES - “The Brook”
1. Personification:
Examples:- The who le poem is personification (Giving the
brook attributes of human beings)
1. A sudden sally…… by thirty bridges. Personifies as an army
of soldiers who makes a sudden surprise
attack, hurries
down and slips between the ridges.
2. Bicker shows the brook to be quarrelsome.
3. Sharps and trebles personifies a singer.
4. I wind about and in and out shows movements of a dancer.
5. I murmur, I linger, I loiter, I go on forever personifies
human.
6. I steal, I slip, I slide personifies a snake.
2. Alliteration
haunts of coot and hern, sudden ..sally, hills .. Hurry,
Men…may…
fairy .. foreland, Field and fallow,
with …willow-weed… half a hundred,
farm I flow bubble into ….. bays,
many a …….. my banks, Foamy ..flake,
I slip,… I slide, I gloom… I glance, Murmur……..moon,
Golden gravel.
3. Refrain
(Refrain is a poetic device that repeats, at regular
intervals, in different stanzas.)
For men may come and men may go
But I go on forever.
4. Repetition
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,
Men may come and men may go.
5. Onomatopoeia – Sounds
Bicker Babble
Chatter Trebles
Bubble Murmur
6. Imagery
slip between the ridges, the brimming river
In little sharps and trebles, I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
With many a curve my banks I fret
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”
I steal by lawns and grassy plots, I slide by hazel covers; I
move the sweet forget-me-nots
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;
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H.W: On the basis of your understanding of the
poem, answer the following questions by ticking4 the
correct choice:
1. The message of the poem is that the life of a
brook is _________.
(i) temporary (ii) short-lived (iii) eternal (v)
momentary.
2. The poet draws a parallelism between the
journey of the brook with ___________.
(i) the life of a man (ii) the death of man (iii)
the difficulties in a man's life (iv) the endless
talking of human beings.
3. The poem is narrated in the first person by the
brook. This figure of speech is ________.
(i) Personification (ii) Metaphor (iii) Simile
(iv) Transferred epithet.
4. The brook’s final destination is _______.
(i) farms (ii) fields, fallow & fairylands.
(iii) brimming river.
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“I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.
1. Whom does the “I” refer here?
2. Who is the poet of the poem, ‘The Brook‘?
3. Where does the brook come from?
4. Can you point out two poetic devices used in the
above lines?
5. Explain “I make a sudden sally”?
6. What makes the brook sparkle?
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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.
1. Where is the brook’s destination?
2. Name the poetic device used here.
3. What message is conveyed in the last two line?
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