The charm of the poem lies in its delicate characterization, in its tone
of pensive memory suffused with cheerfulness, and especially in the song
of the brook, about which the action revolves. Twenty years have wrought
many changes in the human lives of the story, but the brook flows on
forever, and Darnley bridge still spans the brimming river, and shows for
only change a richer growth of ivy.

6. HOW MONEY BREEDS, i.e. by producing interest at loan.

8. THE THING THAT--IS. The poet's function is thus described by
Shakespeare:

As imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
--_Midsummer Night's Dream_, V., 1.

17. HALF-ENGLISH NEILGHERRY AIR. The Neilgherry Hills are in Madras.
The climate resembles somewhat that of England.

37. MORE IVY, i.e. than twenty years ago.

46. WILLOW WEED AND MALLOW. These are marsh plants.

93-95. NOT ILLITERATE--DEED. Katie was not without reading; but she was
not of those who dabble in sentimental novels (the source of imaginary
tears), and saturate themselves with unctuous charities; and whose powers
to act are sapped by their excess of feeling.