CROSSING THE BAR BY ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

ABOUT THE POEM:

"Crossing the Bar" is a poem by the British Victorian
poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The poem, written in
1889 (three years before he died), is a metaphorical
meditation on death, which sees the speaker
comparing dying—or a certain way of dying—to
gently crossing the sandbar between a coastal area
and the wider sea/ocean. He uses the metaphor of
crossing a sand bar to represent death in this
poem. However, this transition isn’t marred by
sadness but is tinted with a sense of tranquil
optimism with which the speaker hopes to meet his
maker. In essence, it is a poem that argues that
death is in fact a kind of comfort, a point of view
based on the speaker's religious faith in the afterlife. Accordingly, the speaker wants to die quietly and
gently, without fear, reassured by the knowledge that what comes next is a meeting with God.
This poem is an elegy (In modern literature, elegy is a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for
the dead), focusing on the transience of life and the finality of death. Crossing the Bar’ is a four stanza
poem that’s divided into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. These quatrains follow a consistent
rhyme scheme of ABAB. Tennyson’s astute sense of rhythm and his ear for melody finds its controlled
expression in this poem.

STANZA-WIZE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE POEM:

STANZA 1
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,

The poet notices the sunset and evening star in the sky, and hears a sound calling for him loud and
clear. He hopes that the sandbar will not be disturbed when he goes out to sea.

"Crossing the Bar" opens with a metaphorical image, focusing on "Sunset and [the] evening star" to
immediately suggest that something is coming to an end. Specifically, the speaker interprets these
images of evening as a signal that the speaker's life is nearly over, as the poem
later reveals explicitly. It is symbolic of old age leading to the impending death
of the speaker.
 "evening star"- is traditionally not a star at all—it is the planet Venus.
Compared to other planetary bodies, Venus moves through the skies
quite quickly, making it a kind of wandering "star" as well. This suggests
the journey of life, the movement from one kind of time to another,
eventually coming to rest with death.
 "one clear call."- refers to the announcement for the sailors and
seafaring men to set out. This literal meaning of the call is entwined with the symbolic
significance of the impending announcement of the poet’s departure from the present world to

Mrs. P. Joseph’s notes Page 1

 the next. The speaker senses that their time has come, and the idea that this is marked by a
"call" foreshadows the role that God will play later in the poem, as if God is beckoning the
speaker back to Heaven. As the poem progresses, the idea of a heavenly afterlife will comfort
the speaker. The alliteration of "clear call" is intentionally obvious, conveying the clarity of the
"call" by making the /c/ sound more prominent.
 ‘moaning‘- Literally it refers to the sound made by the sea waves as they come crashing on the
sandbar. Such a phenomena occurs when the tide is low and the bar has resurfaced. An open
sandbar is one of the most dangerous objects a ship can run into. It means disaster. It is only
natural then that the speaker doesn’t wish to hear the moaning of the bar when he sets out for
sea.
Symbolically, it reflects the pain which accompanies one when crossing from one realm to
another, from life to afterlife as indicated by the use of ‘sadness of farewell ‘ in the third stanza.
The poet hopes that the sandbars of despair do not rise to stop him from going back to his home
which is the sea of eternity.

 ‘bar’- here means a sandbar. A sandbar is a geographical structure

which forms around the mouth of a river, or extends from a ‘Spit’
by slow deposition of sediments carried by the current over
millions of years. The structure forms a kind of barrier between
the water inside (the river water) and outside it (the open sea).
The poet uses the metaphor of crossing the bar (boundary
between life and death) and in particular this sandbar as a
symbol of death, with the water inside representing his life, and
the water beyond representing the afterlife. He wants to ‘put
out to sea’ without the ‘moaning of the bar’. The poet wishes his
death to be without pain and without mourning.
Personification- It is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas of inanimate objects are invested with
attributes of living beings. Example-
“And may there be no moaning of the bar”

In this sentence, the inanimate object bar has been given human-like attribute of “moaning”.
STANZA 2
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.
The poet wants to be carried out on a tide moving so slowly it seems almost asleep, and which is too
swollen to make a sound or create a wash. The poet wants his death to be smooth. Like a calm sea
wave, which is ‘too full for sound and foam’ the speaker hopes that his death will be silent, smooth and
quick, making no fuss. In the stanza, the speaker of the poem talks about the inevitability of death.
Personification- But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Tide has been personified and given a human-like quality of being
asleep.
 river and the sea – examples used to express the kind of
death the poet wishes for himself. The water from the sea
evaporates and turns into clouds; these clouds bring rain,
entering that water into the river, and these rivers too flow,
carrying their water and eventually pouring it into the sea.
They thus complete a cycle, and the water returns from where

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 it came. Just so, the speaker, considering himself like the water, says that he is returning where
he came from. The poet draws attention to the fact that journey into death is merely a part of
the cycle of life and death.
 The boundless deep-here apparently stands for the sea, and in an allegorical sense to the place
the poet believes he will go to after his death. Here, we should notice that this stanza is a strict
continuation of the idea introduced in the first stanza. The last lines of the first stanza together
with this one makes up the meaning of the verse.
 turns again home- shows the waves as originating from the boundless ocean, briefly touching
the shore only to return again to the depths of eternity. The unknown eternity of the
“boundless deep” is the home of the soul which must cross the bar to reach there. The Christian
notion of the ephemeral nature of life and the eternal afterlife which is the true home of the
soul is visible in these lines.

STANZA 3
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

Twilight comes with the evening bell, which will be followed by darkness. There don't need to be any sad
goodbyes when the poet goes. The poet again resorts to describing the atmosphere to convey his inner
feelings. It was sunset when the speaker started the poem, but now it is twilight. The sun has already
gone down the horizon and dusk is settling. The speaker can hear the evening bell tolling. It is the
indication that night is approaching. Then after a while it gets dark.
 evening bell- The transition from twilight to the darkness of the night is complete in this stanza,
signaled by the evening bell. The evening bell is also symbolic of the knell which is sounded
when someone dies.
 twilight and evening bell- The phrase “sunset and evening star” of the first stanza is replaced
by “twilight and evening bell” of this stanza. The evening and the sunset is also symbolic of the
old age he is in and his impending death. Here twilight stands for sadness, darkness and grief
portray the poet’s miserable state before his death.
 sadness of farewell- is ambiguous and can mean both the speaker’s own sadness as he departs
from life, or the sadness of the people whom he leaves behind and who are saying farewell to
him. Again, Lord Tennyson writes ‘When I embark’ to convey the idea of the speaker’s death.
Thus, it is evident from the word ’embark’ that death is not seen as a final destination by the
poet, but rather as a new beginning.

STANZA 4
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 poet says that even though he'll be going far from this time and place (a place beyond time and
space), floating on the tide of death, he hopes to meet God, who has been like his pilot in this journey,
when he has made it across the bar. We are, thus, acquainted with the poet’s belief in afterlife.
We understand that the poet has accepted his reality – inevitability of death. He appears to have made
his peace with the idea of his fast approaching death, thus, suggesting his positive attitude towards
death.

Mrs. P. Joseph’s notes Page 3

  bourne of Time and Place- The physical world that we inhabit is referred to as the “bourne of
Time and Place”.

 The flood- can be viewed as being a representation of one’s faith, the high tide of faith which
will drown the dangerous sandbar and help him sail away. Notice, it is only the ‘flood‘of a high
tide which will bear him far away from the treacherous sandbar of despair.
 Pilot - direct reference to God (metaphor). The idea of God
being the Pilot of one’s ship is a recurrent theme in Christianity.
In seafaring Britain, the Pilot was also a person who detected the
deceptive sandbars and guided the sailors to a safer route
towards the sea. Again, the intermingling of the physical and the
spiritual realm becomes evident.

 crost- While it might simply be a word to suggest ‘Crossing’ the bar, it is

speculated that it might be a reference to Christ, as crost is similar in sound to
both Christ and Cross. If so, then we find another allusion from the poet to
religion and afterlife.

The poem thus ends on a positive note with the poet both accepting the finality of
death and hoping to meet God in the afterlife.

THEMES:
1. Old Age, Death, Acceptance, and Christianity
“Crossing the Bar” is a poem in which a speaker confronts the reality of imminent death—and finds a
kind of peace in the thought of dying. Rather than being scared by death, the speaker presents it as a
mere transition into another kind of life (specifically, the Christian afterlife). The speaker compares this
to the crossing of a sandbar—the kind that marks the shift from a coastal area to a sea or ocean—and
asks that there be no “sadness of farewell” on their behalf. The poem is thus inherently an argument in
favor of accepting death, with the comforting knowledge of God’s love as solace.
The speaker senses their time on earth is near an end, noting the “sunset” and “evening star,” and even
hearing a “clear call” that death is close at hand. This offers an opportunity for them to reflect on death.
Building the metaphor of death as the crossing of a bar of sand, the speaker puts forward the idea that
death is not something to fear—but just a quiet, near-seamless transition between two different states
of being.
The poem opens with a kind of announcement, the speaker hearing the “clear call” that it is time for
them to die. As the poem progresses and the speaker reveals their belief in the Christian God, it
becomes apparent that the speaker sees this “call” as coming from God himself. Already, this establishes
the idea that there is a God behind life and death, and that this coming death is part of God’s plan—that
death should not be feared because it is designed by God, who has people’s best interests in mind.
As such, the speaker hopes that there “may be no moaning of the bar” when the speaker “put[s] out to
sea.” Why “moan,” goes the speaker's argument, when death is part of God’s plan. In essence, the
speaker is saying that they hope there is no fear, sadness, or pain when they die—on the speaker’s part
or on the part of others. That’s because, ultimately, the speaker doesn’t see death as a true end.
The speaker prefers to die quietly, because to them that befits the belief that death is merely a
transition. To disturb the sandbar, metaphorically speaking, would be to worry about death—to fear and
even resist it. To die quietly on a metaphorical tide that is “too full for sound and foam,” seems the most
appropriate way to die.

Mrs. P. Joseph’s notes Page 4

The speaker does, however, acknowledge that dying means going somewhere very far away from the
earthly realm: “For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place / The flood may bear me far.” These
lines draw a link between the ocean and eternity, putting forward the idea that the speaker is
merely returning to the eternal realm from which they came. Indeed, the speaker believes that their life
was part of God’s plan—and so too is their death.
In fact, this journey from the earthly to the spiritual realm is even something to look forward to. That’s
because it’s only through dying that people can meet their “Pilot”—the Christian God. The speaker
hopes to know God through death, to look at God “face to face.” Accordingly, the speaker is in a way
quietly but eagerly expecting death—not living in fear of it. Death brings with it a new kind of knowledge
and experience that isn’t available to the living. Most importantly, it leads to a reunion with God.
In summary, then, the poem insists that there is no reason to fear death. Instead, it argues that people
should take solace in the rather paradoxical thought that death brings with it not an end, but a new
beginning

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