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:
Nowhere 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.
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.
Themes

The poem is extremely heavy on the
theme of sadness, regret and loneliness.
Other themes include nature,
existentiality and acceptance.
The narrator is writing about a small rivulet which he
knows well but will not visit again in the future.
The poem is taken to mean that the narrator is thinking
about his own death.
There is a contrasting of the potentially eternal presence of
the rivulet with his own limited time on this earth.
There is also the comparison of his life fading away, as the
rivulet fades into a river, and eventually the sea.
By using the nature theme, Tennyson is reminding us of how
small we really are compared with the world & the universe.
The line not by thee my steps shall be is said so very
matter-of-factly, that it suggests there is no regret by the
narrator, for he has lived a good life.
Overview

The poem is pretty literal, which no
metaphors nor similes. Personification is
used, Lord Alfred breathes life into the
brook and speaks of it as if it is a person.

Conclusion

Alfred Lord Tennysons poem A Farewell
beautifully describes the fact that death is
something which will come to everyone, be it rich
or poor.
No one on earth can escape death. We all feel that
after we die people will be sad and mourn.