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 twenty bends, a twinkling, I At length am made a river; For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.

I drain the swamp and filter through The shires, I join the brimming river, For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.

I am the fountain of the river, But my waters are for all, I run to the sea, I flow to the earth, For I am a river for all.

I leave my silvery bed behind, And dance along the gorge, For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.

I arrive from the glen where the sun is shy, And I wrench the wood to the brink, For I am the roar in the timber. For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.

• Alfred Lord Tennyson