O, hark! O, hear! how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going! O, sweet and far from cliff and scar, The horns of Elfland, faintly blowing! Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying; Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. O, love, they die in yon rich sky; They faint on hill or field or river. Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow forever and forever. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying; And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. HELPS TO STUDY. Notes and Questions. Why does the poet use "splendor" instead of "sun-set," and "summits" instead of "mountains"? Line 2--What is meant by "old in story"? Line 3--Why does the poet use "shakes"? Line l3--To what does "they" relate? Line l5--Explain. Line l5--Why does the poet use "roll"? Line l6--They "die" and "faint" while "our echoes" "roll" and "grow." Note that "grow" is the important word. Note the refrain and the changes in its use; in the first stanza--the bugle; in the second--the echo; in the third--the spiritual echo. Point out lines that have rhyme within themselves. Words and Phrases for Discussion. "wild echoes" "cliff and scar" "horns of Elfland" "rich sky" "purple glens" * * * * * THE BROOK ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON I come from haunts of coot and hern, I make a sudden sally, And sparkle out among the fern, To bicker down a valley. By thirty hills I hurry down, Or slip between the ridges, By twenty thorps, a little town, And half a hundred bridges, Till last by Philip's farm I flow To join the brimming river, For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever. 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 forever. 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 Upon me, as I travel With many a silvery water-break 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 forever. I steal by lawns and grassy plots, I slide by hazel covers; I move the sweet forget-me-nots That grow for happy lovers. I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance, Among my skimming swallows; I make the netted sunbeams dance Against my sandy shallows, I murmur under moon and stars In brambly wildernesses; I linger by my shingly bars, I loiter round my cresses;