Critical analysis of Alfred Lord Tennyson “Break, Break, Break”

The poem Break, Break, Break by Alfred Lord Tennyson was written in 1833 to lament the loss of Tennyson’s closest friend, Arthur Henry Hallam (https://study.com.Academy).

Reading the entire poem gives the reader a scenery that the speaker is by the sea which appeared to be dramatic and dreamy. The first line of the first stanza is the speaker commanding the sea to break something or break from something. If you just look at the surface, it would just appear that the speaker seems to command the sea to break the cold gray stones probably in front of him but going deeper, the speaker wants the sea to break his inability to express his agony verbally and the thoughts that flooded his mind. The speaker aims to lessen the pain he feels by expressing it in words.

    In the second stanza, the speaker became observant of his surroundings. He notices the people who seem happy by the shore, a brother and a sister who is playing, a sailor lad whose even singing with his boat. The speaker’s observation of his surroundings continues towards the third stanza as he looks at the ship which seems to go on contently about to get lost peacefully in the horizon with a certain destination. These activities around saddened him even more. Probably the speaker questioned himself and his surroundings. How can everything around him seem alright when he stands there in torment and lamenting for his friend? How can that ship go on when he can’t even move a finger as he remembers the treasure he had lost. How can the world continue to spin while he is still broken? The speaker continues to grieve and remember the touch of his friend which he will never feel again and the voice which he will never hear again.

    In the last stanza, the speaker goes back to commanding the sea to break something. This time, the speaker has now come to realize that even if the sea breaks this barrier, what he had lost will never come back to him.

    The poem is a sad one that perfectly reflects the author’s feelings towards his lost friend. It was interpreted by other critics that this poem is for his lost lover but anyone who lost someone very dear to them reflects these thoughts. Furthermore, the sea is a perfect choice of scenery by the speaker as the sea mirrors his greatest pain which seems endless just like the vast sea.