Break, Break, Break

BY ALF RE D, LO RD TE NNYSON

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.

n/a

Source: 2017-11-01

CONTACT US

NEWSLETTERS

PRESS

PRIVACY POLICY

POLICIES

TERMS OF USE

POETRY MOBILE APP

61 West Superior Street,

Chicago, IL 60654
Tennyson's Poems
by Alfred Tennyson

Tennyson's Poems Study Guide

The poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is among the greatest of English literature. Many of his poems are mainstays of
literature courses, and most have attracted copious critical attention. His poems ar e renowned for, among other
things, their bold heroic narratives, their moving evocation of deep emotions, their skillful yricism
l and cadences, and
their memorable imagery.
Tennyson began writing verse when he was very young; he composedThe Devil and the Lady when he was just
fourteen, demonstrating ease of style and poetic vision beyond his years. The comedy of the poem easily moves into
dark complexity. The year he went to Cambridge, he and his brother Charles publishedPoems of Two Brothers
(1827). Most of the poems were written by Alfred, and almost all display deft irony and mature grimness unleavened
by comic touches. Only two reviews of the book were published, and few copies sold.
At Cambridge, Tennyson penned the strange and accomplished “Timbuctoo.” A fully Romantic poem, it concerns the
legendary African intellectual city and suggests that the magic it held was deriv
ed from the mind of man. The poem
attracted the notice of the university, which awarded Tennyson the chancellor’s prize in 1829. At this time Tennyson
entered the undergraduate intellectual club The Apostles and became close friends with Ar thur Henry Hallam. The
two planned to publish a volume of poems together, but Hallam’s father prohibited him from participating.
Thus, in 1830 Tennyson published his ownPoems, Chiefly Lyrical. It contained such works as the critical favorite
“Mariana,” “The Kraken,” “The Dying Swan,” and “Ode to Memory.” Many of the poems were introspective and clearly
the work of a young poet, but “Mariana” is certainly one of the most notable poems in his oeuvr
e. Reviews of this
volume generally were favorable, lauding Tennyson’s experimental meter and melody.
Tennyson continued to write poems throughout the early 1830s. He publishedPoems in 1832. This volume included
“The Lotos-Eaters,” “The Lady of Shalott,” “Hesperides,” and “The Palace of Art.” The Poetry Foundation states that
“the volume is notable for its consideration of the opposed attractions of isolated poetic creativity and social
involvement; the former usually turns out ot be the more attractive course, since it reflected Tennyson's own
concerns, but the poems demonstrate as well his feeling of estrangement in being cut offfrom his contemporaries
by the demands of his art.” Now considered a masterpiece, it received scathing contemporary reviews.
Tennyson was profoundly grieved when Hallam died in 1833, but he wrote some of his best work in the years after
his friend’s untimely death. These poems andothers were contained in the profound two-volume Poems, published
in 1842. The poems included “The Vision of Sin,” “Locksley Hall,” “Tithonus,” “The Princess: A Medley,” and “Ulysses.”
This time the reviews were extremely laudatory, and the poet’s reputation was restored and cemented.
In 1850, after the publication ofIn Memoriam, dedicated to Hallam, Tennyson’s fame was such that he was
appointed the new poet laureate. He wrote poetry throughout the rest of his life. Late work included the twelve blank-
verse poems on King Arthur and his knights comprisingThe Idylls of the King(1859), “Crossing the Bar,” “The Charge
of the Light Brigade,” and “Maud.”
Tennyson’s reputation suffered somewhat in the first decades of the 20th centur y, but he is now generally recognized
as the greatest poet of the Victorian Age and is sometimes considered one of the greatest poets in the history of the
medium. One of his contemporaries had remarked upon the occasion of the poet’s 80th birthday, “He has expended
the treasures of his native talent on broadening and deepening his own hold upon the Eng lish language, until that
has become an instrument upon which he is ableot play a greater variety of melodies to perfection than any other
man.”

How To Cite https://www.gradesaver.com/tennysons-poems in MLA Format

Osborne, Kristen. Kissel, Adam ed. "Tennyson’s Poems Study Guide". GradeSaver, 11 November 2013 Web.

Tennyson’s Poems Questions and Answers

The Question and Answersection for Tennyson’s Poems is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and
discuss the novel.

Does this poem seem sad? Melancholy?
Depressing? Hopeful? A mixtur e of all
four? What line in the poem best
illustrates its t one?
Check this out:
https://www.gradesaver.com/tennysons-
poems/study-guide/summar y-crossing-
the-bar
Asked by sourav b #913521
Answered by Aslan on 6/23/2019 6:27
PM
In “In Memoriam, ” the line “Or sealed the char ge of the light brigade
within the ir on hills” is a r eference to This appar ently relates to the battle. It is
______________________ said that T ennyson r ead a newspaper
iron deposits article about the Battle of Balacla va,
Asked by E A #407710 where the char ge took place, and wr ote
Answered by jill d #170087 on 4/3/2016 this poem within a matter of minutes.
8:58 PM Tennyson’s son said later that the phr ase
from the...
Asked by aquib s #715007
Answered by Aslan on 4/18/2019 2:21
AM

Study Guide for Tennyson’s Poems

Tennyson's Poems study guide contains a biography of Alfred Tennyson, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz
questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About Tennyson's Poems

Tennyson's Poems Summary
Character List
Glossary
Themes

Essays for Tennyson’s Poems

Tennyson's Poems essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and
provide critical analysis of select poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Tennyson's Poems
by Alfred Tennyson

Tennyson's Poems Summary and Analysis of "Break, break, break"

The sea is breaking on the “cold gray stones” before the speaker. He laments that he cannot give voice to his
thoughts. Yes, the fisherman’s boy shouts with his sister while they play, and the young sailor sings in his boat, but
the speaker cannot express such joy. Other ships travel silently into port, their “haven under the hill,” and this
observation seems to remind him of the disappearance of someone he cared for. No longer can he feel the person’s
touch or hear the person’s voice. Unlike the waves, which noisily “break, break, break” on the rocks as they repeatedly
come in, the “tender grace” of bygone days will never return to him.

Analysis
This short poem carries the emotional impact of a person eflecting
r on the loss of someone he (or she) car ed for.
Written in 1834 right after the sudden death of T ennyson’s friend Arthur Henry Hallam, the poem was published in
1842. Although some have interpreted the speaker’s grief as sadness over a lost lover, it probably reflects the feeling
at any loss of a beloved person in death, like Tennyson’s dejection over losing Hallam.
The poem is four stanzas of four lines each, each quatrain in irregular iambic tetrameter. The irregularity in the
number of syllables in each line might convey the instability of the sea or the broken, jagged edges of the speaker’s
grief. Meanwhile, the ABCB rhyme scheme in each stanza ma y reflect the regularity of the waves.
On the surface, the poem seems relatively simple and straightforward, and the feeling is easy to discern: the speaker
wishes he could give voice to his sad thoughts and his memories, ot move and speak like the sea and others around
him. The poem’s deeper interest is in the series of comparisons between the external world and the poet’ s internal
world. The outer world is where life happens, or where it used to happen for the speaker. The inner world is what
preoccupies him now, caught up in deep pain and loss and the memories of a time with th e one who is gone.
For example, in the first stanza, the sea is battering the st
ones. The speaker appears frustrated that the sea can keep
moving and making noise while he is unable ot utter his thoughts. The sea’s loud roar, its ability to vent its energy, is
something he lacks. The repetition of “break” aptly conveys the ceaseless motion of the waves, each wave
reminding him of what he lacks.
In the second stanza, Tennyson similarly expresses distance between himself and the happ y people playing or
singing where they are. They possess joy and fulfillment, whether together or alone, but he does not. The brother and
sister have each other; the sailor has his boat; the speaker is alone. They have reason to voice pleasure, but he does
not. One might sense envy here, but “O, well” also suggests that these blithe young people have losses yet to come.
In the third stanza the poet sees the “stately ships” moving to their “haven under the hill,” either to port or over the
horizon. Either way, they seem content with a destination. But the mounded gr ave is no pleasant haven, in contrast.
That end means the end of activity; there is no more hand to touch, no more voice to hear. Again the speaker is
caught up in his internal thoughts, his memory of the mourned figure overshadowing what the speaker sees around
him. The critic H. Sopher also interprets the contrast in this stanza as such: “The stateliness of the ships contrasts
with the poet’s emotional imbalance; and theships move forward to an attainable goal ... while the poet looksback
to a ‘vanish’d hand’ and a ‘voice that is still.’”
In the fourth stanza, the speaker returns to the breaking of waves on the craggy cliffs. The waves come again, again,
again, hitting a wall of rock each time. But forhim there is no return of the dead, just the recurring pain of loss. Why
speak, why act? Sopher explains that “the poet’ s realization of the fruitlessness of action draws the reader’s
attention to the fact that the sea’s action is, seemingly, fruitless too—for all its efforts [it] can no more get beyond the
rocks than the poet can restore the past.” Nevertheless, both the sea and the speaker continue with their useless but
repeated actions, as though there is no choice. The scene evokes a sense of inevitability and hopelessness.
While the feeling here could involve merely the loss of a romantic relationship, it seems more poignant if the speaker
has no hope for the return of the one who is ol st. Without a death, there is no opportunity to connect the “hill” to a
mounded grave, the “still” voice would be harder to interpret, and the “day that is dead” would be a weaker metaphor.

How To Cite https://www.gradesaver.com/tennysons-poems/ study-

guide/summar y-break-break-break in MLA Format
Osborne, Kristen. Kissel, Adam ed. "Tennyson’s Poems “Break, break, break” Summary and Analysis". GradeSaver, 11
November 2013 Web.

Tennyson’s Poems Questions and Answers

The Question and Answersection for Tennyson’s Poems is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and
discuss the novel.

Does this poem seem sad? Melancholy?
Depressing? Hopeful? A mixtur e of all
four? What line in the poem best
illustrates its t one?
Check this out:
https://www.gradesaver.com/tennysons-
poems/study-guide/summar y-crossing-
the-bar
Asked by sourav b #913521
Answered by Aslan on 6/23/2019 6:27
PM
In “In Memoriam, ” the line “Or sealed the char ge of the light brigade
within the ir on hills” is a r eference to This appar ently relates to the battle. It is
______________________ said that T ennyson r ead a newspaper
iron deposits article about the Battle of Balacla va,
where the char ge took place, and wr ote
Asked by E A #407710
this poem within a matter of minutes.
Answered by jill d #170087 on 4/3/2016
Tennyson’s son said later that the phr ase
8:58 PM
from the...
Asked by aquib s #715007
Answered by Aslan on 4/18/2019 2:21
AM

Study Guide for Tennyson’s Poems

Tennyson's Poems study guide contains a biography of Alfred Tennyson, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz
questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
Section Navigation

Tennyson's Poems
by Alfred Tennyson

Tennyson's Poems Themes

Death
The great poets commonly take up the subject of death in their works, but it is are
r to see a great poet treat death in
such a sustained and deeply personal way as Tennyson does. Many of his greatest works were written in the
aftermath of the death of his closest friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. “Ulysses” is about the great hero searching for life
in spite of old age and coming death, and Tithonus”
“ concerns the weariness of life on earth when all one wants to
do is fade into the earth and no longer lingeron. “The Two Voices” is a debate about whether or not ot commit
suicide. “In Memoriam” is the poet’s lengthy meditation on his profound grief and his desire to know what happens
after death as well as his occasional musing that he wishesot die and join his friend. As “In Memoriam ” proceeds,
however, Tennyson appears to accept the reality of death in the natural cycle of life and to understand that he can
still find pleasure on earth until his time comes. He looks forward to his reunion with Hallam and believes that his
friend’s death occasioned his transcendence to a higher spiritual state. The acceptance of death is manif ested in
one of his last works, “Crossing the Bar,” in which he looks upon his passage from life to death as a meaningful and
happy occasion.

Nature
Nature plays many roles in Tennyson’s poetry. Occasionally she is beguiling and sensuous, as in “The Lot os-Eaters.”
In that poem the men sojourning on the isle ar e entranced by their natural surroundings and do not want to return to
their normal lives. Nature is also an ever-present reminder of the cycle of life from birth to death; existing outside of
that cycle can bring grief and separation from one’s mortal humanity, for better or for worse. Occasionally Nature is a
reminder of the vitality of life and existence; other times Nature is used as a metaphor for death (see “Break, break,
break” for the former and “Crossing the Bar” for the latter). Finally, Nature can also be chaotic, hostile, and indifferent
to Man. The casual way she discards species and wreaks havoc leads the poet to conclude that life might be
meaningless.

Grief
Grief permeates Tennyson’s poetry and was a major feature of Tennyson’s emotional life. He endured the deaths of
his parents, the ensuing mental illness and addictions of many of his family members and, as a kind of muse, the
death of his close friend Arthur Henry Hallam. His poems are frank discussions of despairand the trouble of using
words sufficient to express it, and he demonstrates the significance of writing poetry in the face of sorrow and loss.
In some of the poems his grief is overwhelming, and he does not know if he wants ot continue living. In others he
finds ways to manage his grief, coming to accept that sorrow may always be a part of one’s life, while
acknowledging other things in life inspire happiness and hope.

Artistic Isolation
Tennyson struggled with the question of whether great art had to be produced in artistic isolation or if engagement
with the world was acceptable and would not cloud ar tistic vision. In “The Lady of Shalott” he examines this
question. Her island is a safe haven for artists, and she creates her magic web in contentment. However, she is not
actually creating reality, since she only sees things reflected in the mirror, and she eventually tires of her
estrangement from life and love. When she chooses to look out the window and leave her tower, thus breaking the
rule in the curse, she chooses o t embrace a full and passionate life. However, this life is actually death, and her art is
destroyed as well. The poem suggests that the end of ar tistic isolation brings a loss of creativity and artistic power.

Spirituality
Tennyson adhered to a Christian faith that can most vividly be seen in “In Memoriam, ” but he was not wary of
expressing his difficulties with that faith andreligious belief, particularly in the wake of the death of Hallam. He
engages with the scientific findings of the Vict orian era, wondering whether Nature is truly indifferent to Man and
whether death only brings obliteration of the soul. He finds it difficult ot be optimistic and positive that he will be
reunited with Hallam after death and that there is any purpose in living. The poet’s lapses in faith, however, are
reconciled by the end of the poem. He moves from doubt to acceptance, certain once more that the spirit is not gone
after death but lives on and progresses to a higher state. He believes that God does have a plan for human beings
and that one’s presence on earth is not accidental or unheeded.

Time
Many of Tennyson’s works reflect his working through the implications of time. Growing old and lingering on are
laborious and enervating in poems like “Tithonus” and “The Two Voices,” while in “Ulysses” the title character wants
to keep adventuring as long as he can. Life on earth can be very sad because one is separated from loved ones who
have died and because knowledge is limited.Time is also complicated by the tensions between science and er ligion;
science reveals that time stretches on for a very long time, and religion asserts but does not prove what happens
after death. Generally the poet’s reflection is that life is fleeting and short, wasted if one dwells merely in sadness or
in hope, and worth savoring while it lasts.

Courage
Many of Tennyson’s greatest poems feature individuals displaying great courage, especially under duress. Courage
is a universally admired virtue, but during the Victorian age and for the British in particular, it was extremely
important. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” features the “noble” six hundred soldiers who rush into a battle even
though they know they will probably perish; their courage and willingness to follow orders are exemplary. Similarly,
Tennyson creates a highly sympathetic character in Princess Ida from “The Princess: A Medley.” She is firmly
committed to her vision and does not yield o t those who wish to dissuade her from her noble goal of securing
gender equality. In “Morte d’Arthur,” one of the most heroic men in legendary history, King Arthur, is depicted
demonstrating his courage not in the heat of battle but in his willingnessot face death; much like Ulysses. Courage
is perhaps the greatest Tennysonian virtue.

How To Cite https://www.gradesaver.com/tennysons-poems/ study-

guide/themes in ML A Format
Osborne, Kristen. Kissel, Adam ed. "Tennyson’s Poems Themes". GradeSaver, 11 November 2013 Web. 14 February
2020.

Tennyson’s Poems Questions and Answers

The Question and Answersection for Tennyson’s Poems is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and
discuss the novel.

Does this poem seem sad? Melancholy?
Depressing? Hopeful? A mixtur e of all
four? What line in the poem best
illustrates its t one?
Check this out:
https://www.gradesaver.com/tennysons-
poems/study-guide/summar y-crossing-
the-bar
Asked by sourav b #913521
Answered by Aslan 8 months ago
6/23/2019 11:57 PM
In “In Memoriam, ” the line “Or sealed the char ge of the light brigade
within the ir on hills” is a r eference to This appar ently relates to the battle. It is
______________________ said that T ennyson r ead a newspaper
iron deposits article about the Battle of Balacla va,
where the char ge took place, and wr ote
Asked by E A #407710
this poem within a matter of minutes.
Answered by jill d #170087 9 months ago
Tennyson’s son said later that the phr ase
5/10/2019 12:15 PM
from the...
Asked by aquib s #715007
Answered by Aslan 10 months ago
4/18/2019 7:51 AM

Essays for Tennyson’s Poems

Tennyson's Poems essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and
provide critical analysis of select poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Tennyson's Use of Poetic Technique

Tennyson's Impressionistic Language of Wisdom in In Memoriam XCV
Odysseus Across Time In Dante and Tennyson
A Look at Despair: "Mariana in the South" compared to "Mariana"
Tennyson’s Representations of the Artist Figure

E-Text of Tennyson’s Poems

Tennyson's Poems e-text contains the full text of select poems by Alfred Tennyson.

Preface
Introduction
 Study Guide

Break, Break, Break

Break, Break, Break Summary

The speaker is looking at the ocean and wishing he knew how to express his grief. He sees a
fisherman's kid hanging out with his sister, and he hears a sailor singing, but they don't cheer him
up – they just remind him of the "voice that is still," or the voice of his dead friend that he can't
talk to anymore. The ocean waves keep breaking on the beach, and time keeps marching on, but
the speaker can't go back in time to when his friend was still alive.

Stanza 1

Lines 1-4
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

The speaker addresses the ocean directly, telling the waves to "break, break, break" onto the
stony shore.

After telling the sea to keep doing its thing, the speaker regrets that he can't express his
thoughts.
 He doesn't come out and say, "I can't utter/ the thoughts," he says that his "tongue" can't "utter"
them. This makes him seem kind of passive – he's not speaking, his "tongue" is doing it.

He's not really thinking, either – the thoughts "arise in" him almost spontaneously, without
effort.

Stanza 2

Lines 5-8
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!

The speaker thinks it's all well and good that the fisherman's kid is "shout[ing]" and "play[ing]"
with his sister.

Repeating the same sentence structure, the speaker says it's great for the sailor who is
"sing[ing]" in his boat.

The repetition makes it sound like maybe the speaker doesn't really think it's all well and good
for these people to be cheerful. Is he jealous, perhaps, of their happiness? Or of their ability to
communicate it, since he admitted back in Stanza 1 that his "tongue" can't "utter/ the thoughts
that arise"?

Stanza 3

Lines 9-12
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!

The fancy, "stately ships" pass by the speaker and head to their "haven," or protected port.
 The port is "under the hill," so there must be a big hill overlooking it.

The speaker isn't distracted by the ships, though. Sure, he notices them, but his mind is
elsewhere.

He's just wishing he could "touch" the "vanish'd hand" and hear "the voice that is still." This is
the first explanation of why the speaker is so sad. He's grieving for someone he loved who is
now dead.

He doesn't come out and describe the dead friend, though – he just lists a series of missing
things: the "hand" and the "voice." The lost friend is described as a series of absent parts.

Loading...

Stanza 4

Lines 13-16
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 speaker repeats the first line again, telling the waves to "break, break, break" again.

But it's repetition with a difference: in the first stanza, he tells the waves to break "on thy cold
gray stones," and in the last stanza, he tells the waves to break "at the foot of thy crags."

It's not exactly the same – time has gone by, and even the breaking of the waves has changed
slightly. Maybe it's the tide coming in.

The waves have changed slightly, and we see that time is passing, despite the tragedy that the
speaker has suffered. Mournfully he says that the happy old days when his friend was alive will
never return.

Get started