Write a short note on the 'sea' symbol in "Break, Break, Break".

"Break, Break, Break" (1842) is a short lyrical poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, one of the most representatives of the Victorian Era. The poet here expresses his feelings of melancholy or grief for the loss of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. His feelings of isolation while at Meblethrope, Lincolnshire is also portrayed here.

    Tennyson here uses the symbol of 'sea' to signify his pain more precisely to the reader. 'Sea' is used here as a contradiction to his painful feeling. In the very first stanza of the poem, the poet uses the lines: "Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!"
   The poet means to say that the waves of the sea come and touch and return in its own way without any mistake or pause. It is always moving, there is no stop of it. But the poet is now in the sea of grief which is not moving and constantly bothering the poet. He can not forget the feeling of loss of his friend,his sorrow is in the mode of paralysis.

    On the very last stanza,the poet again quite repetitively says, "Break, break, break/ At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!" Here 'crags' mean rocks in which the sea waves are falling down and doing their jobs without delaying. The poet contrasts his feelings of grief and the sea in order to clarify his situation more prominently.

    Tennyson personifies "Sea" as he uses capital "S" in order to talk to the sea. The poet makes him comfortable to talk to the sea so that he can relax slightly by reducing the burden of pain and sorrow and melancholy. This same feeling of grief is expressed more clearly in his longer poem, "In Memoriam".