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I'm just now started reading books. Currently starting the book Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1889).

I am not able to understand the below bold sentence in the paragraph.

while, in the pauses of our talk, the river, playing round the boat, prattles strange old tales and secrets, sings low the old child's song that it has sung so many thousand years — will sing so many thousand years to come, before its voice grows harsh and old — a song that we, who have learnt to love its changing face, who have so often nestled on its yielding bosom, think, somehow . . .

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  • [correction: the sentences in bold below]. You're asking for poetry interpretation, which, unfortunately, this site frowns on.
    – Lambie
    Jan 11, 2022 at 18:45

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There’s a lot of stuff going on in there. To simplify:

. . . the river prattles old tales and secrets — [it] quietly sings an ancient children’s song (that it has sung for thousands of years and will sing for thousands of years to come [before its voice grows harsh and old]) — a song that we, who have learnt to love its changing face . . .

And to simplify further:

. . . the river prattles old tales and secrets — [it] quietly sings an ancient children’s song — a song that we, who have learnt to love its changing face . . .

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  • ``` a song that we, who have learnt to love the changing face``` what does it mean by changing face?
    – Adithya
    Jan 11, 2022 at 5:10
  • The changing face (appearance) of the river.
    – Kate Bunting
    Jan 11, 2022 at 9:23
  • @Adithya: I corrected the to its, to match the author’s original text: we, who have learnt to love its changing face. That should make it clearer that it means the river’s changing face, or the changing river.
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Jan 11, 2022 at 18:53

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