Break, Break, Break Poem PDF

## BREAK, BREAK, BREAK **LORD TENNYSON** ### INTRODUCTION Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was the greatest poet of England during the Victorian era. He was also the Poet Laureate of England from 1850 until his death. He wrote a number of powerful and short lyrical poems, like 'The Charge of the...

## BREAK, BREAK, BREAK **LORD TENNYSON** ### INTRODUCTION Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was the greatest poet of England during the Victorian era. He was also the Poet Laureate of England from 1850 until his death. He wrote a number of powerful and short lyrical poems, like 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', 'Crossing the Bar', 'The Lady of Shallot'. He wrote 'In Memoriam', one of his most accomplished poetic works, to commemorate his best friend, Arthur Hallam, who was Tennyson's fellow student at Cambridge University and who was engaged to Tennyson's sister before his death. 'Break, Break, Break' is an elegy which describes the poet's feeling of loss after the death of Arthur Hallam. It was written in 1835 and published in 1842. In this poem, nature plays an important role, because the poet's intense personal grief seems to be reflected through natural phenomena. There is also a touch of soft melancholy in this poem. ### TEXT 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. ### GLOSSARY/NOTES Break, break, break, ... arise in me: The poet feels sad after the death of his friend, and wishes that he could give words to his feelings of sadness, just as the sea is breaking on the stones. O well for the fisherman's boy at play: The poet looks at the fisherman's boy playing happily with his sister and feels sad that he is alone after his friend's death. Bay: port, shelter Stately: majestic But O for the touch that is still: The poet feels that everything goes on as usual in nature, but he feels sad because he will not any more be able to touch his friend's hand and nor will he be able to hear his friend's voice. crags: high and steep mass of rocks Tender grace: loving and elegant beauty