The Brook
Near a great water's wasteA brook mid rock and sparCame bubbling up in haste,As though to travel far.
It sang: "What joy to rise!'T was dismal under ground.I mirror now the skies.My banks with green abound.
"Forget-me-nots--how fair!Beseech me from the grass;Wings frolic in the air,And graze me as they pass.
"I yet shall be--who knows?--A river winding down,And greeting as it flowsValley and cliff and town.
"I'll broider with my sprayStone bridge and granite quay,And bear great ships awayUnto the long wide sea."
So planned it, babbling by,As water boiling fastWithin a basin high,To top its brim at last.
Cradle by tomb is crossed.Giants are early dead.Scarce born, the brook was lostWithin a lake's deep bed.
Words in this poem
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- quay n.
- A mole, bank, or wharf, formed toward the sea, or at the side of a harbor, river, or other navigable water, for convenience in loading and unloading vessels. [F. quai. See Key quay.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Brook is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, the Agnes Lee translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Théophile Gautier, The Brook, in Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gautier-enamels-cameos/the-brook.html, id L27013.
Form and metre
The Brook is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB wasteA · sparB · hasteA · farB
- 2 ABAB riseA · groundB · skiesA · aboundB
- 3 ABAB fairA · grassB · airA · passB
- 4 ABAB knowsA · downB · flowsA · townB
- 5 AAAA sprayA · quayA · awayA · seaA
- 6 ABAB byA · fastB · highA · lastB
- 7 ABAB crossedA · deadB · lostA · bedB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Near a great water's waste | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A brook mid rock and spar | 6 | ······ |
| Came bubbling up in haste, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| As though to travel far. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| It sang: "What joy to rise! | 6 | ······ |
| 'T was dismal under ground. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I mirror now the skies. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| My banks with green abound. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| "Forget-me-nots--how fair! | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Beseech me from the grass; | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Wings frolic in the air, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And graze me as they pass. | 6 | ······ |
| "I yet shall be--who knows?-- | 6 | ······ |
| A river winding down, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And greeting as it flows | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Valley and cliff and town. | 6 | /˘···· |
| "I'll broider with my spray | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Stone bridge and granite quay, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And bear great ships away | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Unto the long wide sea." | 6 | ······ |
| So planned it, babbling by, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| As water boiling fast | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Within a basin high, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To top its brim at last. | 6 | ······ |
| Cradle by tomb is crossed. | 6 | /˘···· |
| Giants are early dead. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Scarce born, the brook was lost | 6 | ······ |
| Within a lake's deep bed. | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.