“Crossing the Bar” (1889)
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 ride 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 tho’ 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.
“Crossing the Bar” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is about a sailor on a ship that’s
ready to set sail into the ocean on “Sunset and evening star” (Line 1) and “twilight and
evening bell” (Line 9), both representing the calling symbols of the night setting.
Tennyson’s poem commences portraying a beautiful trip to paradise, however, once you
read the poem in depth he describes preparing for his death. The poet believes with God
by our side we shouldn’t fear death upon us because our life will end soon as we will not
live forever.
The poem “Crossing the Bar” is a sixteen-line poem allocated into four four-line
stanzas of distinguishable metrical structure. The primarily iambic lines fluctuate in
length, alternating from four-syllable lines (dimeters) to ten-syllable, iambic pentameter
lines. The stanzas adhere to a steady abab rhyme pattern.