Break Break Break Poem Gul Mohar Reader Class 7

 Break Break Break 

Poem summary:
The speaker watches the waves of the sea as they dash against the rocks on the shore in a steady rhythm and wishes he could express his thoughts with such ease.

He is happy for the fisherman’s boy shouting with his sister as they play, for the sailor boy singing in his boat on the shore and for the big ships reaching their destination safely.

And he is sad he can no longer feel the warmth of his friend’s touch or hear the sound of his voice.

The waves will keep dashing against the rocks, symbolising their permanence while life is temporary as
is significant in the passing of his friend whose company he will enjoy no more.

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Understanding the Poem


1. The sea is being addressed in the first line.


2. In the first stanza, the speaker wishes that he could speak out loud the thoughts that come to his mind. This shows that he was feeling overwhelmed and upset. His mind was so full of difficult emotions that he wanted to express them and feel better, but he could not.


3. The fisherman’s boy, his sister and the sailor boy are the people mentioned in the second stanza.
The fisherman’s children are playing on the shore. The sailor boy is singing and sailing a boat on the bay.


4. In the third stanza, the speaker mentions that the stately ships sail away to their destinations as before. That scene has remained unchanged.
What has changed is that the speaker’s beloved friend is no more, so the speaker can no longer hold his hand or hear his voice.


5. The tender grace of a day that is dead—the beauty and warmth of the time that is past, the time spent with his friend, will never come back to the speaker, because the friend with whom the speaker spent the time is no more.


6. The speaker is mourning the death of his friend. He is deeply sad but he cannot express his sorrow. He misses his friend’s company and his voice and knows that the time spent with his friend will never return. Yet he sees that the sea waves crash on the shore as always; children play and sing and sail as before, unaffected by his sorrow. Ships sail on. Nothing beyond his own life stops or changes because of his sorrow. Thus life and nature go on despite what happens to human beings.

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