The poem describes a brook that flows through the English countryside. It hurries down 30 hills and flows through 20 villages and half a hundred bridges. Though people come and go, the brook will go on flowing, joining the brimming river. It chatters over the landscape, winding through fields and meadows with blossoms, trout and grayling. The brook states that while people are temporary, it will flow on forever, joining the larger river.