“Crossing the Bar”
Complete TextSunset and evening starSummary
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 crossed the bar.
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.
Analysis of the poem “Crossing The Bar” by Lord Alfred Tennyson:
The poet hears the clear call of death. He is awaiting death. Death is a happy journey from the limited world to the boundless unknown. It is crossing the bar to sail across the vast unknown sea. The poet will set sail at sunset. Then there will be the full tide without sound. He will have a smooth sailing to the other world. After evening, darkness will come down. The poet will be born far out of the limited world. But he will have no fear as he hopes to meet his pilot-his Devine Guide-face to face.
Analysis of the poem
3.1 Title
The title of this poem is very important when you have already read it, because I think that all people can think the same than me when I saw it the first time, I mean, that you do not know exactly what the poem is going to talk about. But once you have read it, the title is meaningful.
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 bar is one of several images of liminality in Tennyson's poetry: in "Ulysses," the hero desires "to sail beyond the sunset"; in "Tithonus", the main character finds himself at the "quiet limit of the world," and regrets that he has asked to "pass beyond the goal of ordinance."
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.
3.2 Theme
I think the most important idea of this poem is how Tennyson feels about death, and that he wants nobody to cry for him. He sees how death is going to call him through the sea, and how the dark appears reaching his last moments in the life. But he talks about this because he wants no sadness in anyone.
3.3 Structure
The poem is divided into four stanzas, each one with four lines. And the rhyme is A-B-A-B. This is related with the fact that the first and third stanzas are linked to one another, and the second and fourth too, being always the first and third line of every stanza longer than the other two
.
• The first stanza:
Tennyson starts locating what is going to happen, I mean, he talks about “the sunset”, “the evening”… and that he has a call (of the death), so he doesn’t want any “moaning” for him when he will die.
• The second stanza:
The author describes the environment and tries to make us understand that this death will mean for him only a new life.
• The third stanza:
Here he shows us that in this moment (and as it is happening during the poem as we see in the first and this third stanza with the repetition of the word “evening”), it is not the night for him, the night, I mean, the dark will come when he dies, and when it will happen, he wants “no sadness of farewell” (line 11) from the people.
• The fourth stanza:
He says that when he will die he will see "his Pilot".
words in the poem
a. sunset
b. evening star
c. moving tide
d. boundless deep
e. home
f. twilight
g. evening bell
h. flood
i. bourne of Time and Place
j. Pilot
k. crossing of the bar
l. the dark
their meaning
a. the end of one's life
b. the final journey's end
c.the path one must follow upon death
d. the spiritual home from whence we came
e. Heaven
f. the moving light seen when from moving from one place to the next.
g. The bell which tolls for thee
h.The opening of the flood gates allowing the soul to travel on the flood waters.
i.The mortal existence of the soul.
j.The face and presence of one's maker.
k.Moving from Earthly to Heavenly existence.
l. The time of mortal death.
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