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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 vanished 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.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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Tuesday, December 31, 2002 |
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Read poems about / on: sister, sea
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Comments about this poem (Break, break, break
by
Alfred Lord Tennyson
) |
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Mohammad Akmal Nazir (7/19/2011 11:30:00 AM)
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The poem 'Break, Break, Break' is an elegy written by Tennyson. In 1833, the death of Arthur Hallam shocked Tennyson. Moreover, the poet was highly dejected due to the adverse criticism on the publication of his 'Poems' in 1831. His disgusting love-affair with Rosa Baring, too increased his suffering. The poet is sad and dejected. His heart is rarely stricken with grief. It is a pathetic elegy. His grief did not stop or decrease after the composition of this elegy. We can find out the poet's dejection in his later poem namely 'In Memorium' (1850) . The poet presents therein his own melancholy and despair in pathetic strain.
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Terence George Craddock (7/20/2010 1:08:00 AM)
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Tennyson employs beautiful contrast in this poem, beginning with the thrice repeated break of waves ‘On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! ’, to portray the constant breaking, suffering of a human heart in the agony of mourning. Immediately after this metaphor of suffering, describing the inability of the tongue, to describe this pain of loss.
The joy of the fisherman’s children ‘at play! ’ and ‘the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat on the bay! ’, is the illustration of shades of life, as some mourn in deep sorrow, others enjoy moments of happiness. There is beauty everywhere, in the passage of ‘stately ships’, safely reaching ‘their haven under the hill; ’ but this seems to intensify the suffer of a hand never to be touched again, the voice never to be heard again.
The first line of the fourth stanza, neatly rounds the brief circle of life, repeating the ‘Break, break, break’ beginning the opening stanza, but intensifying the suffering, as ‘cold gray stones, O Sea! ’ becomes ‘At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! ’. This imagery contains a note of increasing suffering, terrible loss that does not quickly pass; the danger perhaps of dark suicidal thoughts, and the suggested ‘tender grace of a day’, when the suffering and pain of the dying loved one, ended in the mercy of death.
Tennyson displays a mastery of contrasted imagery, in this lyrical poem of heartache and bereavement. Tennyson’s pain is real, as he expresses the indifference of nature, in a cruel and unfeeling world, through personification in an address to the sea. The shock at the sudden death of his best friend, Arthur Hallam from a stroke at age 22; a fellow poet engaged to his sister Emily, teaches us the priceless value of youth and good health.
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Kevin Straw (7/19/2010 9:53:00 AM)
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The question is: do we believe him? I do not mean is the poem true biographically, but is it, in itself, true? Is there not something of the rotund and measured tones of the preacher here? Is there anything here of the real emotion of loss?
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Albert Wong (7/19/2010 7:21:00 AM)
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Why the ancient poem still can bring us to enjoy...
I like these sentences:
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished 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
it seems echo in my heart immediately as I read.
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JOSEPH POEWHIT (7/19/2010 6:44:00 AM)
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Tennyson, pondering the movement of time and life. Portrayed by events, that come and go, yet have a cyclical being
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Ramesh T A (7/19/2010 2:06:00 AM)
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Nice poem to sing and enjoy the pleasure of poetry!
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Marieta Maglas (8/3/2009 3:08:00 PM)
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''Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me. ''...............
I read my own poems and I understand why I am still here.I love his poems very much.His poems are written for my soul, too....
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Anthony Foster (7/19/2009 4:56:00 PM)
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Life just carries on as grief is personal, the words bring a picture of everyday life against the backdropp of the sea admidst a ocean of personal grief, so well written.
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Michael Pruchnicki (7/19/2009 4:14:00 PM)
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Please, please. please give us all a break, you readers who attribute your 20th & 21st century attirudes to a 19th century Victorian English poet! Tell us in no uncertain terms what you're talking about!
In other words, the poet remarks on the brevity of human existence - fishermen still land the fish, the sailor works his watch on incoming vessels, and yet the loss of one singular loved one cuts to the quick like a mortal wound!
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Hannah Hetzel (7/19/2009 3:45:00 PM)
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I like the idea of thus poem
but i do not appreciate this
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