break break break poem | explaination

 Break, Break, Break Poem/ Explaination- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Break, Break, Break Poem The Mystric Drum

Break, break, break 

On thy cold grey 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.

Break Break Break Poem Explaination Notes

1. Tennyson is at his lyrical best in this short poem. It is an example of how content and form become one in a good poem. It also shows how image and sound, jointly and separately, match the predominant feeling being expressed. 

2 Note the sound effects in the poem. The breaking sound of the waves of the sea comes alive through the repetition of 'Break, break, break, both in the first and in the last stanzas. The sad heart of the poet calls out to the sea through 'O' sounds in every stanza. The poet expresses happiness and sorrow through the phrases 'O well for' and 'O Sea respectively. The same rhyme is used in the first and the last stanzas. using the same words: 'Sea' and 'me'. 

3. Structurally, the balance of emotion is maintained using Six lines to convey life that goes on happily (lines 5 to 10) and six lines to express the poet's grief associated with his friend's death (lines 3, 4; 11, 12, 15. 16). Note how the poet's grief breaks out, or is expressed, intermittently, like the waves. Note how the refrain in lines 1 and 2, which conveys the predominant feeling of personal loss, is repeated in the last stanza (lines 13, 14) bringing this drama of life and death full circle.