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Alfred Tennyson, Break Break, Break

The poem describes the narrator's feelings of loss and longing for the past. He observes fishermen and sailors who still find joy, while he mourns a "vanished hand" and "voice that is still." Though broken by loss, the narrator finds solace that life and nature continue in a cycle beyond his own experience. He acknowledges that while a joyful past cannot be regained, the passage of time also brings healing.

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2K views2 pages

Alfred Tennyson, Break Break, Break

The poem describes the narrator's feelings of loss and longing for the past. He observes fishermen and sailors who still find joy, while he mourns a "vanished hand" and "voice that is still." Though broken by loss, the narrator finds solace that life and nature continue in a cycle beyond his own experience. He acknowledges that while a joyful past cannot be regained, the passage of time also brings healing.

Uploaded by

GeaninaLuciana
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Break, break, break

by Alfred 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 for 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.
The poem describes the narrators feelings of loss, melancholy and nostalgia but the tone is
not so pessimistic as it seems (,,And the sound of a voice that is still!). After all, he realizes that
there is something beyond the cycle of life and death.
He also observes the life and the nature as a connection between those two, a connection
influenced by passing of time: ,,But the tender grace of a day that is dead/ Will never come back to
me.
His comparison with fishermans boy and the sailor lad may express that, although they are
simple persons, theyre happy, as our narrator was in the past. The times theme is suggested not as a
negative factor, but lets say a positive one: it cures the wounds, it makes you forget some bad
experiences and last, but not least, suggests regeneration, a new age or the continuity of life.

The repetition ,,break, break, break signifies that the narrators feeling is not a new one. He
might fall into depression many times from now long, because he thinks that the death is near and
mankind will never be able to fight with destiny ( so we have deaths theme).
This poem is like a lament, the narrator cries for his better days, he tries to regain his
happiness, he wants to feel alive, to sing like the sailor lad does, to have a great company like the
fishermans boy. He feels the solitude and he is incapable of doing his own faith. The faith betrayed
him, the time betrayed him, the life betrayed him and now he expects death, being conscious that is
an indubitable event.
The massive usage of the interjection ,,O (Sea!) relates the narrators sufferance which is a
direct speech in order to impress the reader and make him appropriate to narrators state.
"Break, Break, Break" can be classified as an elegy that has a very simple style and describes
a scene in minimalistic terms.

Coman Luciana-Geanina,
Anul III, gr. aII-a

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