One version of this painting was said to have been exhibited with the Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem titled “Break, Break, Break,” expressing themes of loss and loneliness after the death of a friend.

I couldn’t verify this, but the poem is beautiful to read side by side nonetheless:

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 vanished 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.