Break, break, break...
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.
First published in 1842. No alteration.Break, break, break... - fact Summary
Inspired by a Friend's Death
Published in 1842, this short lyric records a speaker’s private grief and longing after a beloved friend’s death. Tennyson contrasts the sea’s repeated, impersonal breaking and everyday life—fishermen, sailors, ships—with the irretrievable absence of a ‘‘vanish’d hand’’ and ‘‘voice that is still.’’ The poem is commonly read as a personal elegy inspired by the death of Arthur Henry Hallam, framing loss against the continuity of the world.
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