丁尼生Break, break, break,Crossing the Bar

I. Alfred Tennyson
1. His literary position
a. Tennyson was recognized as the greatest poet in Victorian Age.
b. He was made poet laureate in 1850 when Wordsworth died.
2. His life (see textbook)
a. the 4th son of a clergyman in Sombersby.
b. Started writing very early, with Byron as his youthful hero.
c. In 1827, published Poems by Two Brothers.
d. The same year, went to study at Cambridge and joined the “Apostles”, a group of gifted students headed by Arthur Henry Hallam.
e. In 1830, published his first volume of verse “Poems, Chiefly Lyrical”.
f. In 1831, called home due to death of his father and financial difficulties.
g. In 1832, published another volume of poems but not well-received, so he remained silent for 10 years perfecting his poems.
h. In 1842, returned to public notice with the publication of his “Poems” in two volume.
i. In 1850, appointed Poet Laureate in succession to Wordsworth.
j. Made a peer in 1882 and ever since called Lord Tennyson.
k. Died in 1892 and buried in Westminster Abbey.
3. Features of His Poems
He has a total mastery of the sounds and rhythms of the English language.
He is able to create a sense of nostalgia, a strong longing for the past.
He is good at linking descriptions of nature or setting to the state mind of the speaker.
His poems reflects his conservative ideas.
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. 冲激，冲激，冲激
大海呀，冲激灰而冷的岩石！我但愿我的舌端能说出
我内心涌起的情思。

多幸福啊，那渔家童子
在和妹妹嬉戏、叫嚷！
多幸福啊，那少年水手
唱着歌在海湾里荡桨！
还有庄严的船舶，一艘艘
驶归山下它们的港口；
但我只求听到那沉寂了的嗓音，触到那只消逝了的手！
冲激，冲激，冲激，
大海啊，在岩石脚下崩裂！
可是温柔美好的日子死了，
与我已从此永诀。

（诗下附的写作时间是1842年）
《Break, break, break》一诗作于1834年，寄托了丁尼生对亡友哈勒姆的哀思。

“溅吧”，英文为“break”，意思是破碎，因此在诗中即表现了海浪拍击岩石，浪花四溅，有暗示了诗人因只有英年早逝而悲痛心碎（heartbreak）的双关意义。

为了强调自己对死亡的深切感受，丁尼生在诗的中部将生命和死亡的意向放在一起平行比较，已造成鲜明的反差：一方面是充满活力的渔家孩子和唱歌荡舟的水手，另一方面则是象征生命结束的驶进海港的船舶，陨灭的水手和沉寂的
说话声。

然而对丁尼生来说，生和死又不是截然相对的，生孕育着死，死亡有是新生的开始，而大海就是融生命和死亡为一体的生动象征，因此在描写海浪拍击岩石时，丁尼生用了“你的灰岩”，“脚边的巉岩”等限定词，似乎那使得海浪破碎的“冷冷的灰岩”也是大海有机的组成部分。

从这个意义上说，《Break, break, break》一诗不仅寄托了作者对亡友的哀思，也表达了他对死亡的接受。

《溅吧，溅吧，溅吧》在韵律上极具特色。

以第一诗节为例。

开头一行作者连用了三个单音节词“Break，break，break”，即模仿年里海浪拍击岩石时的状态，有表现了诗人心灵的破碎。

第二行用了5个长元音词，读起来缓慢深沉，给人一种肃穆感，尤其是在末尾，诗人通过充满感情的“O Sea！”二词发出了一声悲痛的长叹。

整个诗节用词简介，表达细腻，极富感染力。

Background
The poem is an elegy that describes Tennyson's feelings of loss after Arthur Hallahm died and the realization that there is something beyond the cycle of life and death.
When Tennyson was graduated from Cambridge and lived in the home still less than a month. Tennyson's father died (1831). He discussed the mystery of dead and Arthur Hallahm who was engaged with his "black eyes expressionless" sister Emily. They tended to explore the secret of the gods. Sometimes Emily would join in and played the harp......"
When Arthur went to Vienna in holiday, every day he wrote Tennyson an ebullient letter. Some days later, Tennyson didn't receive Arthur's letter. But he received Arthur's father's letter "friend, sir, Arthur Hallahm has passed away " “God’s finger touched him, and he slept. ". Tennyson often went to his graveyard which is close to the sea, and the sea shocked the cold and gray rock".
Tennyson's closest relative and friend - father and Hallahm’ death gave Tennyson a heavy hit which caused him to continuously think the death. He miss Arthur a long time and wrote the poem.
Content
1-4
The speaker addresses the ocean directly, telling the waves to "break, break, break" onto the cold gray stony shore,expressing his saddness.
After telling the sea to keep doing its thing, the speaker regrets that he can't express his thoughts.
He doesn't come out and say, "I can't utter/ the thoughts," he says that his "tongue" can't "utter" them. This makes him seem kind of passive – he's not speaking, his "tongue" is doing it.
He's not really thinking, either – the thoughts "arise in" him almost spontaneously, without effort.
5-8
The speaker thinks it's all well and good that the fisherman's kid is shouting and playing with his sister.
Repeating the same sentence structure, the speaker says it's great for the sailor who is singing in his boat.
The repetition makes it sound like maybe the speaker doesn't really think it's all well and good for these people to be cheerful. Is he jealous, perhaps, of their happiness? Or of their ability to communicate it, since he admitted back in Stanza 1 that his "tongue" can't "utter/ the thoughts that arise"?
9-12
The fancy, "stately ships" pass by the speaker and head to their "haven," or protected port.
The port is "under the hill," so there must be a big hill overlooking it.
The speaker isn't distracted by the ships, though. Sure, he notices them, but his mind is elsewhere.
He's just wishing he could "touch" the "vanish'd hand" and hear "the voice that is still." This is the first explanation of why the speaker is so sad. He's grieving for someone he loved who is now dead.
He doesn't come out and describe the dead friend, though – he just lists a series of missing things: the "hand" and the "voice." The lost friend is described as a series of absent parts.
13-16
The speaker repeats the first line again, telling the waves to "break, break, break" again.
But it's repetition with a difference: in the first stanza, he tells the waves to break "on thy cold gray stones," and in the last stanza, he tells the waves to break "at the foot of thy crags."
It's not exactly the same – time has gone by, and even the breaking of the waves has changed slightly. Maybe it's the tide coming in.
The waves have changed slightly, and we see that time is passing, despite the tragedy that the speaker has suffered. Mournfully he says that the happy old days when his friend was alive will never return.
Themes
Grief
The main theme is bereavement, heartache, emptiness. In the narrator's dark hour of grief, the sun rises, children laugh, business goes on as usual. How could the world be so cruel and unfeeling?
Preciousness of Youth
Tennyson's friend, Arthur Hallam, was only 22 when he died. The shock of Hallam's death impressed upon Tennyson how priceless youth is. To underscore this idea, and to express the agony he suffers at the loss of young Hallam, Tennyson presents images of youthful joy: the fisherman's son playing with his sister and the "sailor lad" singing in the bay.
Indifference of Nature
Nature continues to function according to its rhythms and cycles regardless of what happens, good or bad, to human beings. The temperature may plummet just when a poor family runs out of fuel. The sun may shine and the birds may sing in the middle of the bloodiest of battles. And the sea will rise and fall in a defiant, unrelenting rhythm that refuses to acknowledge tragedy in the everyday life of average men. Tennyson laments this cold indifference in "Break, Break, Break."
Summary
The narrator grieves the loss of his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, a promising poet and essayist who had been engaged to Tennyson's sister, Emily. Hallam died of a stroke in 1833 when he was only 22. Nature, of course, does not stop to mourn the loss of anyone. Cold and indifferent, it carries on, the waves of the ocean breaking against rocks along the seashore without pausing even for a moment. The rest of the world carries on as well: the fisherman's boy happily playing with his sister, the sailor merrily singing, the ship busily plying the waters of commerce. Downcast, isolated by his grief, the narrator yearns to touch the hand of his friend once more, to hear the sound of his voice. But, no, Hallam is gone forever; his "tender grace" will never again return.
Crossing the Bar
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When That which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I
Have crost the bar. 越过海滩
太阳沉没，晚星闪烁，
一个清晰的呼声在召唤我！
愿海滩不要哀泣呜咽，
当我出海的时刻。

浑然流动的潮水似已睡去，
潮太满了．反而无声无息，
从无边的海洋里汲取的，
如今又复归去。

暮色茫茫，晚钟轻轻．
接着是黑暗降临！
但愿不要有诀别的悲痛
当我启航的时辰；
虽然潮水会把我带到无限遥远，越出我们的时间、空间，
我希望见到领航人，面对着面，当我越过了海滩。

见领航。

写这首诗时作者已80岁高龄。

令人惊叹的是，此时的桂冠诗人仍能灵感勃发。

据说诗人作成这首诗只用了不到10分钟。

诗人在暮霭中想象自己渡过沙洲的情景。

“渡过沙洲”是比喻，指诗人在经历了人生的风霜后，平静地迎接死亡的来临，毫无恐惧和衰伤。

这首诗表现了作者关于死亡的传统的基督教思想，强调了他自己坚定的宗教信仰。

正如娴熟的领航会引导船安然渡过沙洲一样，上帝也会引导我们平安地渡过险恶的死亡的浅滩。

诗的前两行以视觉景色和声音开关，以鲜明的感观形象了读者注意力。

同作者的其他诗一样，在这首诗中，诗人也成功地把身外的自然景色与诗人的心态融合在一起，用景物衬托心情。

落日的余辉，廖廖闪烁的星辰，好似沉睡的退潮，消然涌动的浪花，以及暮霭钟鸣，使全诗笼罩着一种沉静、凝重、肃穆的气氛，这正与诗人的心态相吻合。

Background:
Tennyson wrote "Crossing the Bar" in 1889, three years before he died. The poem describes his placid and accepting attitude toward death. Although he followed this work with subsequent poems, he requested that "Crossing the Bar" appear as the final poem in all collections of his work.
Main idea of the poem:
The speaker heralds the setting of the sun and the rise of the evening star, and hears that he is being called. He hopes that the ocean will not make the mournful sound of waves beating against a sand bar when he sets out to sea. Rather, he wishes for a tide that is so full that it cannot contain sound or foam and therefore seems asleep when all that has been carried from the boundless depths of the ocean returns back out to the depths.
The speaker announces the close of the day and the evening bell, which will be followed by darkness. He hopes that no one will cry when he departs, because although he may be carried beyond the limits of time and space as we know them, he retains the hope that he will look upon the face of his "Pilot" when he has crossed the sand bar.
Theme
. The theme of the poem is Tennyson expresses his optimistic attitude towards death when he is old.Alfred Tennyson wrote this poem at the age of 80. To our surprise, the poet laureate can still use his inspiration to make this poem within 10 minutes.
This piece of poem talks about the death of traditional Christian['kristʃən] thought, emphasizing the poet’s firm religious beliefs. As a skilled pilot will guide the boat ride out the sandbar, God will guide us safely through the shallows浅薄的，肤浅的of the sinister ['sinistə]不吉利的；凶恶的death.
The first two lines of the poem switch visual sights and sounds of the reader‘s attention to the distinctive sensory image. “Sunset”、“evening stars”, “twilight”and “evening bell”are all the images of the end of life in this poem, and “sea”、“tide”、“dee p” and“ flood” are all the symbols of life.
To conclude, the poet imagined the scene that he tided sandbar in the dusk. The "tide sandbar" is a metaphor which means the poet calmly greeted the coming of death after he went through the life weathered, with no fear and grief.
As a whole, the poet associates the flesh of the natural beauty with his state of mind in his poem ,which successfully shows us his optimistic attitude towards death.
Appreciation:
Tennyson uses the metaphor of a sand bar to describe the barrier between life and death. A sandbar is a ridge of sand built up by currents along a shore. In order to reach the shore, the waves must crash against the sandbar, creating a sound that Tennyson describes as the "moaning of the bar."
The other important image in the poem is one of "crossing," suggesting Christian connotations: "crossing" refers both to "crossing over" into the next world, and to the act of "crossing" oneself in the classic Catholic gesture of religious faith and devotion.
crossing the bar 英文评论
Summary
The speaker heralds the setting of the sun and the rise of the evening star, and hears that he is being called. He hopes that the ocean will not make the mournful sound of waves beating against a sand bar when he sets out to sea. Rather, he wishes for a tide that is so full that it cannot contain sound or foam and therefore seems asleep when all that has been carried from the boundless depths of the ocean returns back out to the depths. The speaker announces the close of the day and the evening bell, which will be followed by darkness. He hopes that no one will cry when he departs, because although he may be carried beyond the limits of time and space as we know them, he retains the hope that he will look upon the face of his “Pilot” when he has crossed the sand bar.
Form
This poem consists of four quatrain stanzas rhyming ABAB. The first and third lines of each stanza are always a couple of beats longer than the second and fourth lines, although the line lengths vary among the stanzas.。