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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  “Break, break, break”

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

V. Death and Bereavement

“Break, break, break”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

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 the haven under the hill;

But O for the touch of a vanished 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.