RPO -- Alfred Lord Tennyson : Break, break, break

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Break, break, break

1Break, break, break,

2 On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

3And I would that my tongue could utter

4 The thoughts that arise in me.

5O, well for the fisherman's boy,

6 That he shouts with his sister at play!

7O, well for the sailor lad,

8 That he sings in his boat on the bay!

9And the stately ships go on

10 To their haven under the hill;

11But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,

12 And the sound of a voice that is still!

13Break, break, break

14 At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

15But the tender grace of a day that is dead

16 Will never come back to me.

Notes

1] "Made in a Lincolnshire lane at five o'clock in the morning, between blossoming hedges" (Tennyson). It is in memory of the poet's friend, Arthur Hallam, who died in 1833.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Alfred lord Tennyson, Poems, 2 vols. (Boston: W. D. Ticknor, 1842). PR 5550 E42a Victoria College Library (Toronto). Alfred lord Tennyson, Works (London: Macmillan, 1891). tenn T366 A1 1891a Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
First publication date: 1842
RPO poem editor: H. M. McLuhan
RP edition: 3RP 3.49.
Recent editing: 2:2002/1/10

Rhyme: abcb

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