Break, Break, Break
BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O, well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

Lord Tennyson
Break, Break, Break is a sea elegy written by Lord Tennyson on the death of his university friend Arthur Henry Hallum. Here, the ever-breaking sea, the fisherman's boy, the stately ships, etc. all show the permanence of the world around and yet they remain unaffected by the poet's personal grief. However, the thoughts contained in this elegy are not so elaborate and high as in In Memorium but the Current of thoughts is not less pathetic.
In this short lyric, Nature serves as a mirror of poet’s intense feelings of sorrow. The poem has reference to a watering place on the Bristol Channel where his friend is buried. Simple and lucid, the poem regards the poet’s intense grief which is shared by Nature. In the opening lines, the impression of an unpleasant face is being hammered into the poet’s consciousness. The poet wishes, he could give his voices to his humbled and anguished feelings just as sea breaks on the story surface. Farther, the cold gray stones could be interpreted as gravestones, as well as the cliff walls.
“Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.”
In the next stanza, the dead past and sea both create a feeling of soft melancholy. The friendship between the children and the contentment of the sailor boy make him feel the loss of his friend more acutely:
“ O well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!”
Life goes on as usual, once the poet is miserable and solitary and longs for his company of his dead friend. The stately ships of life are taking its voyage towards the domain of death- under the hill. Thus in the description of Nature there goes the image of deceased Arther Hallum who has been silenced for ever by the hidden hand of death. The following lines seem to indicate the poet in a melancholy mood. He is missing his dear friend who was a source of comfort. In fact, in "In Memoriam" the image of touching hands is repeated frequently and almost becomes a motif for Tennyson's grief for his friend. He always wants to touch his hands once more and it is similar in this poem, he longs to be able to touch Hallam again because he knows he never will:
“ And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But o for the touch of a vanished hand
And the sound of a voice that is still”
Life flows on uniformly in Nature, only the poet will not be able to recover the joy of his early life when Hallum was alive. The melancholy notes of breaking the sea waves remain Sophoclean eternity in the concluding lines:
“But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me”.
Paraphrase: The speaker is speaking to the Sea, wishing he could speak. He sees the children
playing and singing and ships go by, but what he really wants is to feel or hear the person that is no longer with him. The waves will always crash against the cliffs, but he will never see his friend again.
Devices: Repetition of “break” brings emphasis, creates feeling of an uncaring cycle that’s
forceful. Personification and apostrophe of the Sea makes the sea seem like a cruel observer of the grief the speaker is going through. The Sea doesn’t do anything and just continues on in its cycle with its “crags” and “cold gray stones.” The speaker uses paradoxes to describe his friend that is gone, (line 11-12) emphasizing the permanence of death and the hopeless yearning of the speaker for something impossible. Metonomy is also used in those lines. The meter of the poem is musical, creating a flowing sound which is further emphasized by the alliteration in some of the lines. The rhyme scheme is ABCB, making the stanzas sound a bit like crashing waves, and the look of the poem could also be seen as uneven, crashing waves.
Attitude: The speaker seems full of grief. His exclamations to the uncaring Sea hold his anger
and despair. He sees the children playing and singing and seems to wish he could do the same. He talks of them saying, “O, well for the…” like he wants to be as carefree as they are. Toward the “stately ships” going “to their haven under the hill” he seems resentful. They are just going on their way while he is there yearning for “the touch of a vanish’d hand,/ And the sound of a voice that is still!” Finally, the speaker seems to accept the fact that the person he lost will never come back to him, but he still is mournful that he has lost “the tender grace.”
Shifts: There is a shift after each stanza. The first stanza holds the speaker’s anger. He seems to
direct his anger at the sea, but also that he can’t say what he needs to. The next stanza is an observation of the children around the speaker playing and singing and the speaker seems envious of them. In the next stanza the speaker is noting that other people are just going on with their lives. He sounds a bit resentful that they can go to their “haven” while he will never again know the “touch of a vanish’d hand.” The last stanza is the speaker’s final thoughts. The repetition of “break, break, break” shows again the cycle of the sea and contrasts that with his friend that will never come back to him.
Title: Again, the title shows the cycle and detachment of the waves. Their reoccurrence seems to
contrast with the ended life of his friend and they are insensitive to the speaker’s loss.
Theme/Total Meaning: One of the themes of this poem is that though grief may still be
prevalent, time passes and the rest of the world moves on. The speaker continues to think of and mourn his lost friend, but time passes and life goes on. The speaker seems to struggle with how long he should grieve his friend, but at the end he becomes resolved to the fact that his friend is gone, and maybe he, too, can continue with his life.
BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O, well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

Lord Tennyson
Break, Break, Break is a sea elegy written by Lord Tennyson on the death of his university friend Arthur Henry Hallum. Here, the ever-breaking sea, the fisherman's boy, the stately ships, etc. all show the permanence of the world around and yet they remain unaffected by the poet's personal grief. However, the thoughts contained in this elegy are not so elaborate and high as in In Memorium but the Current of thoughts is not less pathetic.
In this short lyric, Nature serves as a mirror of poet’s intense feelings of sorrow. The poem has reference to a watering place on the Bristol Channel where his friend is buried. Simple and lucid, the poem regards the poet’s intense grief which is shared by Nature. In the opening lines, the impression of an unpleasant face is being hammered into the poet’s consciousness. The poet wishes, he could give his voices to his humbled and anguished feelings just as sea breaks on the story surface. Farther, the cold gray stones could be interpreted as gravestones, as well as the cliff walls.
“Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.”
In the next stanza, the dead past and sea both create a feeling of soft melancholy. The friendship between the children and the contentment of the sailor boy make him feel the loss of his friend more acutely:
“ O well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!”
Life goes on as usual, once the poet is miserable and solitary and longs for his company of his dead friend. The stately ships of life are taking its voyage towards the domain of death- under the hill. Thus in the description of Nature there goes the image of deceased Arther Hallum who has been silenced for ever by the hidden hand of death. The following lines seem to indicate the poet in a melancholy mood. He is missing his dear friend who was a source of comfort. In fact, in "In Memoriam" the image of touching hands is repeated frequently and almost becomes a motif for Tennyson's grief for his friend. He always wants to touch his hands once more and it is similar in this poem, he longs to be able to touch Hallam again because he knows he never will:
“ And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But o for the touch of a vanished hand
And the sound of a voice that is still”
Life flows on uniformly in Nature, only the poet will not be able to recover the joy of his early life when Hallum was alive. The melancholy notes of breaking the sea waves remain Sophoclean eternity in the concluding lines:
“But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me”.
Paraphrase: The speaker is speaking to the Sea, wishing he could speak. He sees the children
playing and singing and ships go by, but what he really wants is to feel or hear the person that is no longer with him. The waves will always crash against the cliffs, but he will never see his friend again.
Devices: Repetition of “break” brings emphasis, creates feeling of an uncaring cycle that’s
forceful. Personification and apostrophe of the Sea makes the sea seem like a cruel observer of the grief the speaker is going through. The Sea doesn’t do anything and just continues on in its cycle with its “crags” and “cold gray stones.” The speaker uses paradoxes to describe his friend that is gone, (line 11-12) emphasizing the permanence of death and the hopeless yearning of the speaker for something impossible. Metonomy is also used in those lines. The meter of the poem is musical, creating a flowing sound which is further emphasized by the alliteration in some of the lines. The rhyme scheme is ABCB, making the stanzas sound a bit like crashing waves, and the look of the poem could also be seen as uneven, crashing waves.
Attitude: The speaker seems full of grief. His exclamations to the uncaring Sea hold his anger
and despair. He sees the children playing and singing and seems to wish he could do the same. He talks of them saying, “O, well for the…” like he wants to be as carefree as they are. Toward the “stately ships” going “to their haven under the hill” he seems resentful. They are just going on their way while he is there yearning for “the touch of a vanish’d hand,/ And the sound of a voice that is still!” Finally, the speaker seems to accept the fact that the person he lost will never come back to him, but he still is mournful that he has lost “the tender grace.”
Shifts: There is a shift after each stanza. The first stanza holds the speaker’s anger. He seems to
direct his anger at the sea, but also that he can’t say what he needs to. The next stanza is an observation of the children around the speaker playing and singing and the speaker seems envious of them. In the next stanza the speaker is noting that other people are just going on with their lives. He sounds a bit resentful that they can go to their “haven” while he will never again know the “touch of a vanish’d hand.” The last stanza is the speaker’s final thoughts. The repetition of “break, break, break” shows again the cycle of the sea and contrasts that with his friend that will never come back to him.
Title: Again, the title shows the cycle and detachment of the waves. Their reoccurrence seems to
contrast with the ended life of his friend and they are insensitive to the speaker’s loss.
Theme/Total Meaning: One of the themes of this poem is that though grief may still be
prevalent, time passes and the rest of the world moves on. The speaker continues to think of and mourn his lost friend, but time passes and life goes on. The speaker seems to struggle with how long he should grieve his friend, but at the end he becomes resolved to the fact that his friend is gone, and maybe he, too, can continue with his life.
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