1. “THE TIDE WAITS FOR NO MAN” “IT IS BETTER TO BE HAVE LOVED AND LOST, THAN NEVER TO HAVE LOVED AT ALL.” Break, Break, Break - Alfred Lord Tennyson

2. SYMBOLISM, IMAGERY AND WORD PLAY Metaphor Analogy Simile Apostrophe Repetition Assonance Alliteration Synechdoche Imperative Tripling Onomatopoeia Pathetic Fallacy

3. FORM AND METRE Rhyme Scheme Break, break, break, (A) On thy cold gray stones, O Sea ! (B) And I would that my tongue could utter (C) The thoughts that arise in me. (B)

4. Symmetrical regularity ends. The meter of the poem – the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables – is all over the place. Almost every line has three stressed syllables, which is why we call it "trimeter". If we bold the syllables that you'd naturally emphasize when reading it out loud, you'll see that there are three stresses: And the state/ -ly ships / go on So what's so irregular about it, you ask? Well, even though there are usually three stressed syllables per line, the total number of syllables per line varies quite a lot. The first line, for example, has only three syllables, total, and they're all stressed: Break, break, break. Compare that to line 14: At the foot of thy crags, O Sea !

5. The regular stresses, but irregular total number of syllables, could be seen as a throwback to Anglo- Saxon poetry, like Beowulf or ‘The Wanderer’ Relevance: Beowulf, a great and glorious hero arrives from over the sea, clad in a shirt of shining mail, ready to do barehanded battle with a demonic monster. Oft him anhagaOften the solitary one are gebideð,finds grace for himself metudes miltse,the mercy of the Lord,

6. NARRATOR If we imagine he is standing, looking out at the sea, we can see that he wants us to perceive him as: Aloof Distant Nostalgic

7. THE TITLE… The repetition in the title is important -emphasizes the ocean waves are going to keep breaking, and breaking, and breaking, regardless of what the speaker does; Time continues to pass, even in the wake of great tragedy.

8. WHAT SKILLS/TECHNIQUES DO WE USE?  Tracking through the text = identifying key points  Commenting on implicit meanings/ reading between the lines  Using appropriate terminology  Exploring connotations  Taking points from all of the extract

9. A POTENTIAL OPENER

10. Break, Break, Break is widely regarded as the elegy formed by the poet laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson, on the death of his beloved friend Arthur Hallam. This is, however, one of the many conceptual understandings which can be perceived within reading the language of the text as we can’t help but be bombarded by the references of, and to, nature which provides the symbolism within all four quatrain stanza. The author allows us to vividly imagine the grief stricken narrator to be standing near the cliff on the seashore and addressing the sea waves, which lash at the rocks repeatedly; an implicit expression carried by the application of an analogy.

11. The narrator commands that the ‘waves’ of his grief would break the inarticulateness in his heart, so that he can form utterances which express his feelings of grief. The first stanza reveals the speakers emotional command to the sea to “break, / On thy cold gray stones”. The use of reification compares the speakers heart to that of an solid mass; inert and without hope of feeling.