by Alfred Tennyson

3. 1. The first line says that...
(a) The brook comes from a valley
(b) The brook comes from a hillside
(c) The brook comes from a rainy area
(d) The brook comes from rain
2. Sudden sally refers to...
(a) A sudden, hard time in the brook's life,
(b) An unexpected fall,
(c) A sound that the brook creates,
(d) A movement that the brook makes.

4. 3. Ferns are...
(a) Water birds
(b) Wild plants
(c) Fish
(d) Pebbles
4. The brook sparkles with...
(a)Its water
(b) Its bubbles
(c) Its pebbles
(d) Its birds
5. To bicker down a valley is suggestive of...
(a) The brook's angry mood
(b) The brook's excited mood
(c) The brook's lazy mood
(d) The brook's sad mood

6. 1. The movement of the brook is
(a) slow
(b) steady
(c) swift
(d) gradual
2. What do the words “thirty hills” and “twenty
thorpes” suggest ?
(a) vast expanse of brook journey
(b) signify brook’s long journey
(c) suggest brook’s final destination
(d) suggest brook’s continuous journey

7. 3. What poetic device does the poet use in the first
line ?
(a) metaphor
(b) symbol
(c) personification
(d) simile
4. 'I' refers to...
(a) The river
(b) The brook
(c) Coot
(d) Hern
5. Thorpes are...
(a) Towns
(b) Villages
(c) Rivers
(d) Hills

8. 6. What are the different places it passes by during
its journey ?
(a) thirty hills
(b) thirty hills, twenty villages, a little town and fifty
bridges
(c) twenty villages
(d) fifty bridges
7. What does hurry down suggest about the terrain
that the brook is moving in?
(a) it suggests the rocky and mountainous terrain
through which the brook is flowing.
(b) it suggests making haste.
(c) it suggests a rocky territory.
(d) it suggests a mountainous place.

10. 1. Philip is a...
(a) Traveler
(b) Farmer
(c) Landlord
(d) Boatman
2. Who is Philip? How is Philip’s farm memorable for
the brook?
3. How is the brook different from ‘men?’

12. 1. Eddy is the...
(a) Spiral movement of water
(b) Whirlpool
(c) Waterfall
(d) 1 and 2
2. Pick out the figure of speech used in the last line.
(a) simile
(b) personification
(c) metaphor
(d) Alliteration-the sound of b is repeated.

13. 3. Babble means...
(a) to complain
(b) to talk happily
(c) to cry
(d) to shout
4. Explain what makes the brook chatter.
(a) The brook produces loud sounds as it flows over
rocky terrain continuously.
(b) The brook produces offending noise.
(c) The brook creates a lot of noise.
(d) The brook is silent.
5. Bay is...
(a) A body of water surrounded by land
(b) An island
(c) A plateau
(d) A small sea

15. 1. Why does the brook fret?
2. How does the poet elaborate the trials
encountered by the brook?
3. What risk does the brook run while it flows
through the fields and fallow?
4. What are foreland sets?
5. In this stanza, the poem presents man's life that
begins to complain. What are his complaints? Why
does he complain?

17. 1. The brook chatters by
(a) making sounds like a monkey
(b) jumping like a monkey
(c) keeping up with the monkey’s pace
(d) making a loud noise as it rushes over different
surfaces
2. The final destination of the brook is
(a) Philip’s farm
(b) the brimming river
(c) a sea
(d) brambly wilderness

18. 3. The last two lines of this stanza are
repeated several times in the poem. The reason
for this
Repetition is to show the ________
(a) perennial nature of the brook in contrast to the
mortal existence of man
(b) mortal nature of the brook
(c) perennial nature of the brook
(d) immortal existence of man
4. What is the figure of speech in the first line?
5. What core idea does the fact that the brook
chatters reveal?

20. 1. Describe the movement of the brook as depicted
in line 1.
(a) Line 1 shows the spiral movement of water.
(b) The brook flows around the obstruction on its way.
(c) And then flows along its path.
(d) all of the above
2. What all does the brook carry as it moves along?
(a) flowers blossom
(b) the lusty trout and grayling
(c) foamy flakes
(d) all of the above

21. 3. Match the following:
(i) lusty trout (A) fresh water fish
(ii) Grayling (B) another type of fish
(C) a big fresh water fish
(a) 1-A. 2-A
(b) 1-B, 2-B
(c) 1-C, 2-B
(d) 1-C, 2-C
4. What is a blossom? How does a blossom sail like
a boat?
5. Name the types of fish in the stanza. Which one
of them is said to be lusty?

23. 1. What is a foamy flake?
2. What are the silvery water-break?
3. What is the golden gravel?

25. 1. How do blossoms sail? How is imagery applied
here?
2. Why is the trout said to be lusty?
3. What are foamy flakes? How does it travel?
4. What is the golden gravel?

27. 1. I “steal” means
(a) by this time the brook’s flow is silent
(b) the brook steals its flow
(c) the stealing nature is revealed by the brook
(d) the brook explains its nature
2. ‘forget-me-nots’ are:
(a) flowers
(b) leaves
(c) bushes
(d) orchids

28. 3. According to the poet, lovers generally like:
(a) rose flowers
(b) any kind of flower
(c) marigold flowers
(d) forget-me-nots
4. What kind of a terrain is the brook moving on
now?
(a) it is moving through mountains.
(b) it is moving in the plains.
(c) it is moving in meadows.
(d) it is moving in pastures.
5. How does the poem describe the brook’s stealthy
movements?
6. What are hazel covers?

30. 1.Identify the figure of speech in the first two
lines:
(a) metaphor
(b) imagery
(c) alliteration
(d) simile
2.The sandy shallows indicate that the brook
is:
(a) on the last leg of her journey
(b) drying up due to heat
(c) filled with sediments
(d) flowing on sandy beds

31. 3. ‘the netted sunbeam dance’ refer to:
(a) sunrays filtering through the intertwined leaves
seem to move with the undulating movement of
water.
(b) rays of sun dance to the music of water
creating a netted effect
(c) shadow of leaves falling on water create a
dance-like effect
(d) the moving water creates the effect of dancing
rays caught in the net
4. Explain the use of onomatopoeia in the first line?

33. 1. The word murmur suggests that the brook flows
(a) very slowly and quickly.
(b) fast.
(c) and stops.
(d) constantly and continuously.
2. Why does the brook linger by my shingly bars ?
(a) As the current of the brook is no longer forceful or
fast, it stops by
the obstructions in its path.
(b) it stops because the current of the brook is always
forceful or fast.
(c) Storms on the way make the brook linger.
(d) (b) or (c)

34. 3. Loiter round the cresses suggests movement of
the brook.
(a) the slow
(b) the fast
(c) the constant
(d) the steady
4. This stanza reveals that the brook allows itself
some rest on one side and on the other complete
rigidity. Explain.
5. What are cresses?

36. 1. How does the brook’s journey change at night?
2. What do you understand about the untiring
determination of the brook in the first four lines?
3. What does the poem portray the end of life in
the stanza above?
4. Why are the last two lines repeated at
intervals? What is this poetic device called?

37. 'The Brook' is a composition of Lord Alfred Tennyson whose fame
rested on his perfect control of sound, the synthesis of sound and
meaning, the union of pictorial and musical elements. The poem is
about a brook which appears to be a symbol of life, which
becomes the central theme of the composition. A dictionary would
define a brook as a stream or a small river. The brook starts from
the mountains most of the times. Suddenly after originating from
there the brook rushes down. The later flow of the brook sees it
sparkling bright because of the sun rays. The brook flows through
a ground which have grass and flowerless plants. 'Bicker' means
to run rapidly or rush in a hurry. Thus, here the brook is said to
flow down a valley making noisy sounds. This noisy movement full
of vigor shows its hurry to reach its destination similar to man in
his youth who is very energetic, lively, enthusiastic and full of
vigor. The poet has shown the swift flow of the brook by using the
words like 'hurry
down', 'slip between', etc. The brook flows down many hills,

38. many being emphasized by the word 'thirty' and narrow hilltops.
The brook flows down past many villages, where the 'thorp', an
old English word has been used for 'village'. Here, again, the poet
tries to make the line creative by using 'Twenty'-not literally
'Twenty villages' and a little town as well. It flows through fields,
uncultivated lands, and lands with different stems, leaves and
flowers of various colours of pink, purple and white. In this early
phase of life, the brook has a very fast motion and it overcomes
all the obstacles, stones and pebbles in its way. This nature of the
brook can be compared to man in his youth when he is
enthusiastic and is ready to face all the challenges that come in
his way. After flowing by Philip's farm, the brook joins an
overflowing river. Here, the brook significantly describes the life
cycle of human being. It exemplifies the fact that men have a
short lifespan and their cycle of arrival and departure goes on
forever. However, in this aspect, the brook is different from man,
having an immortal life because of which it goes on 'forever'. The
noise made by the quick flow of the brook is what makes it
‘chatter’. While the river wanders in a wild and natural course, it
makes a natural swirling, chattering noise. Brimming here means

39. to be abundantly filled with water, to the point of overflow. The
poet has used ‘brimming’ to indicate the amount of water in the
river which the brook joins finally. It creates a picture of immense
volume and abundance. The brook flows in curves because atone
point the path curves. The meandering flow makes it wear away.
'Slip', 'slide', 'gloom', 'glance', 'steal', 'slide', 'move', etc. are
words which signify the various movements of the brook. The
parallelism between the brook's journey and a man's life is
evident in the lines where the brook is shown to take a lot of
things along with it like blossoms, silt, gravel and fish which is
quite similar to the way man meets and accompanies people and
moves forward in life with the people he meets, in the journey of
his life. The last two lines very well explains the central theme of
the poem, that is, the fact that human life is mortal while the
beauty of nature remains eternal. The brook says in these lines
that human lives come to an end and another generation begins.
However, the flow of the brook is continuous and goes on forever.
The immortality and permanence of the brook has been compared
and contrasted with human life, which is mortal and finishes after
a certain span of time.