by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892)
Break, break, o sea, o sea! See original
Language: English
Break, break, o sea, o sea 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 vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still! Break, break, o sea, o sea At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me.
Poet's note: "Made in a Lincolnshire lane at five o'clock in the morning, between blossoming hedges." Written in memory of Tennyson's friend Arthur Hallam (d. 1833).
Composition:
- Set to music by János Végh (1845 - 1918), as Johann Végh, "Break, break, o sea, o sea!", 1868, published 1869 [ voice and piano ], from Zwölf Gedichte, Heft 2, no. 12, Pest: Táborszky & Parsch; Wien: F. Wessely; Leipzig: Fr. Hofmeister, Nr. 72, also set in German (Deutsch)
Text Authorship:
- by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, appears in Poems, Volume II, first published 1842
See other settings of this text.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 110