NCERT Textbook - The Brook | English Class 9 PDF Download

 Page 1


POETRY POETRY 
POETRY POETRY POETRY 
Page 2


POETRY POETRY 
POETRY POETRY POETRY 
Page 3


POETRY POETRY 
POETRY POETRY POETRY 
6 6
UNIT UNIT
Poetry
P. 1    The Brook
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
57
CBSE
1. Can you match the following?
(a) Something that lives for one year biennial
(b) Something that lives for about two years perennial
(c) Something that lives for more than two years annual
2. Here is a list of a few things. Can you tell how long each of them can live /exist?
(a) a dog
(b) an elephant
(c) a tree
(d) a human being
(e) a star
(f) a mountain
(g) a river
3. The poem is about a brook. A dictionary would define a brook as a stream or a 
small river. Read the poem silently first. After the first reading, the teacher will 
make you listen to a recording of the poem. What do you think the poem is all 
about?
I come from haunts of coot and hern;
I make a sudden sally
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.
haunts: places frequently visited by
coot: a type of water bird with a white spot on the forehead
hern: heron, (another kind of water bird)
sally: emerge suddenly
bicker: (here) flow down with a lot of noise
Page 4


POETRY POETRY 
POETRY POETRY POETRY 
6 6
UNIT UNIT
Poetry
P. 1    The Brook
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
57
CBSE
1. Can you match the following?
(a) Something that lives for one year biennial
(b) Something that lives for about two years perennial
(c) Something that lives for more than two years annual
2. Here is a list of a few things. Can you tell how long each of them can live /exist?
(a) a dog
(b) an elephant
(c) a tree
(d) a human being
(e) a star
(f) a mountain
(g) a river
3. The poem is about a brook. A dictionary would define a brook as a stream or a 
small river. Read the poem silently first. After the first reading, the teacher will 
make you listen to a recording of the poem. What do you think the poem is all 
about?
I come from haunts of coot and hern;
I make a sudden sally
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.
haunts: places frequently visited by
coot: a type of water bird with a white spot on the forehead
hern: heron, (another kind of water bird)
sally: emerge suddenly
bicker: (here) flow down with a lot of noise
CBSE
Poetry 
58
5 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
10 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,
15      I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
20 With willow-weed and mallow.
I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
25       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,
And here and there a foamy flake                                                                   
30 Upon me, as I travel                                                                       
With many a silvery waterbreak                                               
Above the golden gravel,
thorpes: a village
trebles: high pitched tune
eddying: spiral movement of water
babble: sound made when one talks gaily
fallow: land left uncultivated to regain fertility
foreland: piece of land that extends into the sea
mallow: plant with hairy stems and leaves and pink, white or purple flowers
lusty trout: a big freshwater fish
grayling: another type of fish
Page 5


POETRY POETRY 
POETRY POETRY POETRY 
6 6
UNIT UNIT
Poetry
P. 1    The Brook
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
57
CBSE
1. Can you match the following?
(a) Something that lives for one year biennial
(b) Something that lives for about two years perennial
(c) Something that lives for more than two years annual
2. Here is a list of a few things. Can you tell how long each of them can live /exist?
(a) a dog
(b) an elephant
(c) a tree
(d) a human being
(e) a star
(f) a mountain
(g) a river
3. The poem is about a brook. A dictionary would define a brook as a stream or a 
small river. Read the poem silently first. After the first reading, the teacher will 
make you listen to a recording of the poem. What do you think the poem is all 
about?
I come from haunts of coot and hern;
I make a sudden sally
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.
haunts: places frequently visited by
coot: a type of water bird with a white spot on the forehead
hern: heron, (another kind of water bird)
sally: emerge suddenly
bicker: (here) flow down with a lot of noise
CBSE
Poetry 
58
5 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
10 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,
15      I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
20 With willow-weed and mallow.
I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
25       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,
And here and there a foamy flake                                                                   
30 Upon me, as I travel                                                                       
With many a silvery waterbreak                                               
Above the golden gravel,
thorpes: a village
trebles: high pitched tune
eddying: spiral movement of water
babble: sound made when one talks gaily
fallow: land left uncultivated to regain fertility
foreland: piece of land that extends into the sea
mallow: plant with hairy stems and leaves and pink, white or purple flowers
lusty trout: a big freshwater fish
grayling: another type of fish
CBSE
Poetry
59
And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river 
35       For men may come and men may go, 
But I go on for ever.
I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
40 That grow for happy lovers.
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.
45       I murmur under moon and stars 
In brambly wildernesses; 
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;
And out again I curve and flow
50 To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
About the Poet
Lord Tennyson (1809-92) was born in Lincolnshire. Poet Laureate for over 40 years, 
Tennyson is representative of the Victorian age. His skilled craftsmanship and noble 
ideals retained a large audience for poetry in an age when the novel was engrossing 
more and more readers. Tennyson's real contribution lies in his shorter poems like 
The Lady of Shallot, The Princess, Ulysses, The Palace of Art etc. His fame 
rests on his perfect control of sound, the synthesis of sound and meaning, the union 
of pictorial and musical.
4.      After reading the poem answer the following questions.
  The poet has used a number of words which indicate 'movement' and 'sound'. Working 
with your partner make a list of these words from the poem and complete the web chart.
hazel: a small tree or bush with edible nuts 
forget-me-nots : a type of flower 
shingly: covered with small rounded pebbles 
cresses: pungent leaved plant like a cabbage