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Poems Every Child Should Know

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<h3>The Brook.</h3> <div class="pre_poem">Tennyson's "The Brook" is included out of love to a dear old schoolmate in Colorado. The real brook, near Cambridge, England, is tame compared to your Colorado streams, O beloved comrade. This poem is well liked by the majority of pupils. (1809-92.) </div> <table class="poem" summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="stanza"> I chatter, chatter, as I flow To join the brimming river; For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever. </div> <div class="stanza"> 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. </div> <div class="stanza"> I steal by lawns and grassy plots, I slide by hazel covers; I move the sweet forget-me-nots That grow for happy lovers. </div> <div class="stanza"> I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance, Among my skimming swallows; I make the netted sunbeams dance Against my sandy shallows. </div> <div class="stanza"> I murmur under moon and stars In brambly wildernesses; I linger by my shingly bars; I loiter round my cresses. </div> <div class="stanza"> And out again I curve and flow To join the brimming river; For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever. </div> </td></tr></table> Alfred Tennyson. <h3>The Ballad of the "Clampherdown."</h3> <div class="pre_poem">"The Ballad of the Clampherdown," by Rudyard Kipling, is included because my boys always like it. It needs a great deal of explanation, and few boys will hold out to the end in learning it. But "it pays." (1865-.) </div> <table class="poem" summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="stanza"> It was our war-ship Clampherdown Would sweep the Channel clean, Wherefore she kept her hatches close When the merry Channel chops arose, To save the bleached marine. </div> <div class="stanza"> She had one bow-gun of a hundred ton, And a great stern-gun beside; They dipped their noses deep in the sea, They racked their stays and stanchions free In the wash of the wind-whipped tide. </div> <div class="stanza"> It was our war-ship Clampherdown, Fell in with a cruiser light That carried the dainty Hotchkiss gun And a pair o' heels wherewith to run, From the grip of a close-fought fight. </div> <div class="stanza"> She opened fire at seven miles— As ye shoot at a bobbing cork— And once she fired and twice she fired, Till the bow-gun drooped like a lily tired That lolls upon the stalk. </div> <div class="stanza"> "Captain, the bow-gun melts apace, The deck-beams break below, 'Twere well to rest for an hour or twain, And botch the shattered plates again." And he answered, "Make it so." </div> <div class="stanza"> She opened fire within the mile— As ye shoot at the flying duck— And the great stern-gun shot fair and true, With the heave of the ship, to the stainless blue, And the great stern-turret stuck. </div> <div class="stanza"> "Captain, the turret fills with steam, The feed-pipes burst below— You can hear the hiss of helpless ram, You can hear the twisted runners jam." And he answered, "Turn and go!" </div> <div class="stanza"> It was our war-ship Clampherdown, And grimly did she roll; Swung round to take the cruiser's fire As the White Whale faces the Thresher's ire, When they war by the frozen Pole. </div> <div class="stanza"> "Captain, the shells are falling fast, And faster still fall we; And it is not meet for English stock, To bide in the heart of an eight-day clock, The death they cannot see." </div> <div class="stanza"> "Lie down, lie down, my bold A.B., We drift upon her beam; We dare not ram, for she can run; And dare ye fire another gun, And die in the peeling steam?" </div> <div class="stanza"> It was our war-ship Clampherdown That carried an armour-belt; But fifty feet at stern and bow, Lay bare as the paunch of the purser's sow, To the hail of the Nordenfeldt. </div> <div class="stanza"> "Captain, they lack us through and through; The chilled steel bolts are swift! We have emptied the bunkers in open sea, Their shrapnel bursts where our coal should be." And he answered, "Let her drift." </div> <div class="stanza"> It was our war-ship Clampherdown, Swung round upon the tide. Her two dumb guns glared south and north, And the blood and the bubbling steam ran forth, And she ground the cruiser's side. </div> <div class="stanza"> "Captain, they cry the fight is done, They bid you send your sword." And he answered, "Grapple her stern and bow. They have asked for the steel. They shall have it now; Out cutlasses and board!" </div> <div class="stanza"> It was our war-ship Clampherdown, Spewed up four hundred men; And the scalded stokers yelped delight, As they rolled in the waist and heard the fight, Stamp o'er their steel-walled pen. </div> <div class="stanza"> They cleared the cruiser end to end, From conning-tower to hold. They fought as they fought in Nelson's fleet; They were stripped to the waist, they were bare to the feet, As it was in the days of old. </div> <div class="stanza"> It was the sinking Clampherdown Heaved up her battered side— And carried a million pounds in steel, To the cod and the corpse-fed conger-eel, And the scour of the Channel tide. </div> <div class="stanza"> It was the crew of the Clampherdown Stood out to sweep the sea, On a cruiser won from an ancient foe, As it was in the days of long-ago, And as it still shall be. </div> </td></tr></table> Rudyard Kipling. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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