by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892)

Break, break, o sea, o sea!
 (Sung text for setting by J. Végh)
 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:

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