'The Brook' is an example of Tennyson's exquisite versification. He had a rare capacity for creating music out of simple words.
Tennyson makes the brook narrate its history- the history of its origin, its meandering and uneven journey through forest and hills and open spaces until it joins the 'brimming river'. The Brook originates from a source on the highlands filled with mountain forest cover, where the wild birds of coot and hern are found in plenty. Its rushing waters touches all the ferns that grow on its banks till it reaches the open valley. In its initial rushing journey, the brook passes through the slopes of thirty hills and flows beneath more than four dozen bridges. Then it touches twenty different villages before reaching a little town.
Before joining the main river, the brook passes by Phillip's farm. As it comes rushing down the hills, its waters produces different musical notes as it dashes against the stony pebbles. The brook makes its presence felt when it passes through the different fields of uncultivated lands and many front lying promontory lands where the weeping willows grow. It winds about with immense power and its cool pleasant waters brings all kinds of fresh water fish to a lively activity.
The brook forms the foamy flake which is accumulatd at the shores where gravels gather in plenty, as it continues to travel down the hills. Sometimes it overflows and incur upon the grassy plots in the lawns. It even overflows to the gounds of Hazel plants and touches the sweet forget-me-nots. All the different sounds and movements that a stream makes as it flows are charmingly conveyed through the words used with an exquisite delicacies of feeling. The trees on the banks, the fish playing about, the blossoms floating on the water, the stretches of darkness and light are vividly reflected on the flowing verse. Above all, the spirit of joy and freedom comes through eloquently.
Each morning when the sun rises, the rays and the beams hit the waters and brightly reflect the shiny dance of the active movement of the brook on the sandy banks. When evening sets in and total darkness covers the surroundings of the countryside, the flow of the brook continues to murmur under the light of the moon and stars. The effects of the brook on the shores in the daytime is as much as in the night.
Tennyson significantly relates the brook to human life to the sad reflection that man's life is impermanent compared with the relative permanence of a river (men may come and men may go, But I go on forever).