Date: 24.01.

2022 Break,Break,Break
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
I. Answer these questions
1. Who or what is being addressed in the first line?
Ans. The sea is being addressed in the first line.
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2. In the first stanza, what does the speaker wish he could do? What does it say
about his state of mind?
Ans. In the first stanza, the speaker wishes that he could speak out loud the
thoughts that come to his mind. This shows that he was feeling overwhelmed and
upset. His mind was so full of difficult emotions that he wanted to express them
and feel better, but he could not.
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3. Who are the people mentioned in the second stanza? Where are they and
what are they doing?
Ans. The fisherman's boy, his sister and the sailor boy are the people mentioned in
the second stanza.
The fisherman's children are playing on the shore. The sailor boy is singing
and sailing a boat on the Bay.
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4. Read the third stanza. What does the speaker mention that has remained
unchanged? What has changed?
Ans. In the third stanza, the speaker mentions that the stately ships sail away to
their destinations just like before; that scene has remained unchanged.
What has changed - is that the speaker's beloved friend is no more, so the
speaker can no longer hold his hand or hear his voice.
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5. Will never come back to me. What will never come back to the speaker?
Why?
Ans. The tender grace of a day that is dead - the beauty and warmth of the time that
is past, the time spent with his friend, will never come back to the speaker, because
the friend with whom the speaker spent the time is no more.
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6. How does the poem show that the life and nature go on despite what
happens to human beings?
Ans. The speaker is mourning the death of his friend. He is deeply sad but he
cannot express his sorrow. He misses his friend’s company and his voice and
knows that the time spent with his friend will never return. Yet he sees that the sea
waves crash on the shore as always; children play and sing and sail as before,
unaffected by his sorrow. Ships sail on. Nothing beyond his own life stops or
changes because of his sorrow thus life and nature go on despite what happens to
human beings.
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II. Appreciating the poem.
1. Personification is the style of giving human qualities to something non-
human in order to make it easier to imagine and more interesting.
This poem uses personification in the first stanza. Which thing is given human
qualities and how?
Ans. In the first stanza, the sea has been given human qualities.
The speaker addresses the sea directly, as he would address a person, and asks the
sea to break on its cold gray stones, as if the breaking of the sea waves on the shore
is like an action performed by a human being.
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2. Repetition is another technique used in this poem.
Which words have been repeated? Why do you think these words have
been repeated - what effect does the rep etition produce?
Ans. The words repeated in this poem are ‘break, break, break.... O Sea’ and ‘O for
the....’
The first set of words have been repeated to show the speaker’s helplessness and
hopelessness as he asked the sea to keep breaking its waves on the shore. The word
‘break’ may reflect the heartbreak he is feeling. He may also wish to say that he
wants to break his silence and expresses sorrow but cannot.
The other set of words have been repeated to show how sad the speaker is feeling.
He writes ‘O well for the...’ when he notices that others are carrying on happily
and lightheartedly when his heart is weighed down by sorrow. He writes ‘O for
the...’ when he wishes that he could get back the company of his friend.
All these repetitions express sadness and distress.
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3. a. Which words, phrases or lines express sadness and longing (a strong
desire specially for something which is difficult or impossible to have)?
Ans. The word ‘break’ and the lines ‘And I would that my tongue could utter / The
thoughts that arise in me.’/ ‘But O, for the touch of a vanished hand, / And the
sound of a voice that is still!’ and ‘But the tender grace of a day that is dead / Will
never come back to me.’ express sadness and longing.
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b. Which stanza captures a different mood - one of joy and light-heartedness?
Ans. The second stanza expresses a mood of joy and light-heartedness.
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4. Silence - or the inability to speak - has been mentioned twice in this poem.
Who are the two people who cannot speak? Why?
Ans. The two people who are unable to speak are the speaker and his friend.
The speaker's friend is no more so his voice cannot be heard anymore. The
speaker is deeply upset by the death of his friend he is so distressed that he cannot
express all that is going on his mind so he too is unable to speak as he would like
to.
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