Have you got a brook in your little heart, 1
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so?
And nobody knows, so still it flows, 5
That any brook is there;
And yet your little draught of life
Is daily drunken there.
Then look out for the little brook in March, 9
When the rivers overflow,
And the snows come hurrying from the hills,
And the bridges often go.
And later, in August it may be, 13
When the meadows parching lie,
Beware, lest this little brook of life
Some burning noon go dry!
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so?
And nobody knows, so still it flows, 5
That any brook is there;
And yet your little draught of life
Is daily drunken there.
Then look out for the little brook in March, 9
When the rivers overflow,
And the snows come hurrying from the hills,
And the bridges often go.
And later, in August it may be, 13
When the meadows parching lie,
Beware, lest this little brook of life
Some burning noon go dry!
(F.94/J.136)
[1] Brook:: Brook Farm was a utopian experiment founded by George Ripley ( 1802-80) in 1840. It's a Utopian community based on transcendentalism.
[1] heart:: fertility of a land (OED 21.a). little heart:: a land with little fertility.
[3] birds:: young or smart fellows.
[4] shadows:: followers of the utopian ideal.
[5–8]:: few knew about the experiment.
[9] March:: the main building of the Brook Farm was destroyed in a fire on March 3, 1846.
[10] river:: one who rives, rends, or cleaves (OED river n.2).
[12] bridges:: that connection people.
[13] August:: the authority; solemnity.
[16] burning:: the Phalanstery was destroyed in a fire on March 3, 1846. Phalanstery is a building for utopian community developed by Charles Fourier (1772-1837).
At Brook Farm men worked manfully at the plow or in the workshop a certain number of hours in each day, that they might study Greek and Latin, German or French the remainder. Music and Poetry were fostered, the graces of art, and the amenities of social life duly inculcated. Men and women, admitted to equal rights and privileges, were to realize the utmost harmony of which the race is susceptible.
A destructive fire broke up the community and sent the disciples far and wide to disseminate the principles of harmony in a broader field, and so this new Paradise was closed by the flaming sword of the modern Cherubim—a fire and no insurance. It is well known that Hawthorne's Romance of Blithedale was designed to afford a portraiture of the life at Brook Farm, which, however, can by no means be relied upon as a true picture. ─ United States Magazine, Volume III (1856)
