Break, Break, Break (Poem Review)

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Break, Break, Break

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

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.

___________________________

We sometimes think of the ocean as a place of sun, blue skies, fun, and enjoyment. When the sky is gray though, or the waves are crashing in just the right way, sitting on the edge of the sea can look and feel miserable and lonely. Break, Break by Alfred Lord Tennyson is from the perspective of someone – though we do not know who – in a state of contemplative misery.

The poem is 16 lines, divided into four stanzas, with each stanza having an ABCB rhyme scheme, though there is no consistent meter in the piece. The poem is told from a first person perspective and utilizes several poetic techniques. Speaking directly to the waves, which cannot respond, is called apostrophe. Repetition of “Break, break, break” begins lines 1 and 13, as the use of “O, well” to begin successive clauses in lines 5 and 7 are an example of anaphora. The poem also utilizes enjambment in lines 3 and 4 and in lines 15 and 16 to great effect.

Perhaps the most powerful technique used in the piece is that of juxtaposition. Lines 5 through 10 present three separate happy scenes, which are all then juxtaposed with lines 11 and 12, wherein we learn the Speaker has apparently lost a loved one – though whether to death or the end of a relationship, we are not told. By presenting the happy scenes first, the presentation of the Speaker’s situation lands more powerfully.

When we return to the Speaker’s address to the sea, in the fourth stanza, we have a better sense of his situation and why he did not know how to express his feelings in the first stanza. He is filled with passion and loss, and though he sits next to something immense, and by people who are filled with happiness and a sense of opportunity. He knows that he has lost something that will never return. Life goes on for others, but never again for himself, at least not as it once did.

Break, break, break works as a command for the sea, in the scene, and as a description of the Speaker.