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RAYAN Final

The document provides a theme analysis of the poem "Break, Break, Break" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It analyzes three main themes: 1) Loss and impermanence, as the poem describes the speaker's feelings of loss and mourning for someone who will never return. 2) The difficulty of moving on, as the speaker is stuck between longing for the past and inability to engage with the present. 3) Historical context, noting Tennyson's place in Victorian literature and how his work critiqued rapid societal changes of the time through depictions of bleakness and hesitancy to embrace change.

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Muhammad Abid
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52 views3 pages

RAYAN Final

The document provides a theme analysis of the poem "Break, Break, Break" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It analyzes three main themes: 1) Loss and impermanence, as the poem describes the speaker's feelings of loss and mourning for someone who will never return. 2) The difficulty of moving on, as the speaker is stuck between longing for the past and inability to engage with the present. 3) Historical context, noting Tennyson's place in Victorian literature and how his work critiqued rapid societal changes of the time through depictions of bleakness and hesitancy to embrace change.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Abid
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Assignment: Theme analysis of the poem “Break Break Break”

Name: MUHAMMAD RAYAN

Roll Number: 44261

Submitted to: ATHAR FAROOQ

Class: BS ENGLISH 8TH (Improvement)

Subject: POETRY II

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH HAZARA UNIVERSITY MANSEHRA


Theme analysis of the poem
Break Break Break

By Tennyson

Loss and Impermanence

The poem describes feelings of loss. He is standing on the rocky sea shore and writing this poem.
It has a strong biographical connection, containing Tennyson's feelings of melancholy and
nostalgia.

The poem implies that the speaker is mourning someone’s death and being forced to face the fact
that this person will never return. Although the poem doesn’t clarify the circumstances of the
speaker’s loss, it’s clear that it has thoroughly unsettled the speaker, who can’t even stare out at
the ocean without feeling tormented by the knowledge that everything in life eventually comes to
an end.

The Difficulty of Moving On

Stricken by grief, the speaker can hardly imagine a world in which it might be possible to
embrace happiness and undertake normal activities like sailing in the bay. However, the speaker
doesn’t need to imagine a world like this, since this kind of carefree joy is playing out directly
before the speaker’s eyes. Despite the speaker’s grief, the world carries on like normal.

The speaker is not only unable to move on, but also conscious that the past is “dead” and will
“never come back.” Consequently, the speaker is frozen in place, stuck between a longing for the
irretrievable past and an inability to engage with the present. In turn, readers see just how
difficult it is to move on in moments of sorrow, especially when the surrounding world seems so
indifferent to a person’s pain and emotional suffering.
Historical Context

In terms of Tennyson's place in the 19th-century literary landscape, it's worth mentioning that he
preceded William Wordsworth as the Poet Laureate of England and Ireland, a position he held
for 41 years (the longest of any poet to date). Heavily influenced by Romantic poets like
Wordsworth and John Keats, Tennyson's poetry represented a continuation of the Romantic
tradition into the Victorian Era, especially in his close attention to detailed description, vivid
imagery, and an overall connection to nature. At the same time, though, Tennyson's work also
shifted away from Romantic poetry in its adherence to formal structures and rhythm, often
delivering the emotionality of the previous era in a more measured, distilled manner.

Tennyson's work also exhibits the Victorian tendency to depict the world in bleak, cynical terms,
an approach that contrasts the celebratory tone employed by the Romantics. This was largely the
result of the Victorian desire to address changes taking place in the 19th century and the many
downsides of such rapid, profit-based societal developments.

Whereas the Romantics bemoaned the onset of the Industrial Revolution, then, Victorian poets
like Tennyson took it upon themselves to critique the results of industrialization, frequently
reminding readers of the world's sorrows instead of praising society's supposed advancements.
And although "Break, Break, Break" isn't about societal change, the speaker's struggle to accept
that life goes on even in moments of grief showcases an unwillingness or hesitancy to embrace
change—a hesitancy that aligns with the Victorian tendency to second-guess the value of 19th
century England's progress

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