for the touch of a vanish'd hand

Think I have only three more poets left in the "going backwards through the Poets Laureate" series ...

... so, here is a famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson; as taken from within the pictured & rather wonderful 1982 compilation (which I would highly recommend).

Tennyson was Poet Laureate from 1850 to 1892.

Wordsworth tomorrow, and then Southey on Thursday ... I definitely have no Henry James Pye, thereafter!


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!
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!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
         Will never come back to me.

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Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892)

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