“Clear and Gentle Stream” Introduction

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“Clear and Gentle Stream” Summary

“Clear and Gentle Stream” Themes

• 

  Nostalgia, Time, and Place

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• 

  The Timeless Beauty of Nature

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Clear and Gentle Stream”

• Lines 1-12

  Clear and gentle stream!
  Known and loved so long,
  That has heard the song
  And the idle dream
  Of my boyish day;
  While I once again
  Down thy margin stray,
  In the selfsame strain
  Still my voice is spent,
  With my old lament
  And my idle dream,
  Clear and gentle stream!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-19

  Where my old seat was
  Here again I sit,
  Where the long boughs knit
  Over stream and grass
  A translucent eaves:
  Where back eddies play
  Shipwreck with the leaves,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 20-24

  And the proud swans stray,
  Sailing one by one
  Out of stream and sun,
  And the fish lie cool
  In their chosen pool.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-31

  Many an afternoon
  Of the summer day
  Dreaming here I lay;
  And I know how soon,
  Idly at its hour,
  First the deep bell hums
  From the minster tower,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 32-36

  And then evening comes,
  Creeping up the glade,
  With her lengthening shade,
  And the tardy boon
  Of her brightening moon.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-48

  Clear and gentle stream!
  Ere again I go
  Where thou dost not flow,
  Well does it beseem
  Thee to hear again
  Once my youthful song,
  That familiar strain
  Silent now so long:
  Be as I content
  With my old lament
  And my idle dream,
  Clear and gentle stream.

  

  

  

  

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“Clear and Gentle Stream” Symbols

• 

  The Stream

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• 

  The Bells and the Evening

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“Clear and Gentle Stream” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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“Clear and Gentle Stream” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Idle
• Margin
• Stray
• In the selfsame strain
• Spent
• Lament
• Seat
• Boughs
• Translucent eaves
• Back eddies
• Glade
• Tardy
• Boon
• Ere
• Thou dost not
• Beseem

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Clear and Gentle Stream”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Clear and Gentle Stream” Speaker

“Clear and Gentle Stream” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Clear and Gentle Stream”

More “Clear and Gentle Stream” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Short Biography — Learn more about Bridges's life and work.

  • Bridges as Laureate — Read more about Bridges's time as the Poet Laureate.

  • The Poem as a Song — Listen to a version of the poem set to music.

  • Portraits of Bridges — Admire some portraits of Bridges via London's National Portrait Gallery.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Bridges

  • London Snow