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Break, Break, Break
Read by Andrew Motion
Break, Break, Break - Alfred Tennyson - Read by Andrew Motion
Break, Break, Break
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!
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 vanish’d hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, 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.
Recording commissioned by the Poetry Archive, shared here with kind permission of our reader.