A Farewell

This poem was dedicated to the brook at Somersby described in the _Ode
to Memory_ and referred to so often in In Memoriam. Possibly it may
have been written in 1837 when the Tennysons left Somersby. _Cf. In
Memoriam_, sect. ci.

Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:
No more by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
A rivulet then a river:
No where by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

But here will sigh thine alder tree,
And here thine aspen shiver;
And here by thee will hum the bee,
For ever and for ever.

A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.