"The Brook" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is written in what is
called ballad or common meter, a form used for traditional ballads, hymns, and many
narrative poems, especially in the Romantic and Victorian
periods.
The poem is written in open quatrains, rhymed
ABAB. The lines alternate between iambic tetrameter (odd numbered lines) and iambic
trimeter (even numbered lines). Thus a typical stanza would take the following
form:
[iambic
tetrameter] A rhyme[iambic trimeter] B
rhyme[iambic tetrameter] A
rhyme[iambic trimeter] B
rhyme
The rhythm of the poem
is quite regular, giving a jaunty, almost nursery-rhyme quality that personifies the
sound of a the babbling brook as it travels through the countryside. The effect is
enhanced by the use of internal rhymes and
alliteration.
More interesting is the refrain. The poem
consists of 13 stanzas, and the refrain "But I go on for ever" occurs at the ends of
stanzas 3, 6, 9, and 13.
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