I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
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
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.
I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
With here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a graying.
And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me as I travel
With many a silvery waterbreak
Above the golden gravel.
And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go'
But I go on for ever. ~ Lord Tennyson
