crossing the bar

A detailed Summary of crossing the bar


Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote "Crossing the Bar" in 1889, just years before he died. This poem describes his uncomplaining attitude toward death. Even though he wrote other poems after this, he requested that "Crossing the Bar" appear as the last poem in all collections of his work.

This poem consists of four quatrain stanzas with rhyme pattern 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 in each stanza.

The poem starts out at the end of the day with the setting sun and the stars beginning to come out. Tennyson then hears a call for him. It is God calling him to "come home." "When [he] put(s) out to sea" he hopes that the waves will not make the mournful sound that occurs when they crash against a sand bar. He wants to pass from this life to the next


"Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark!" The end of the day symbolizes the end of his life. The dark is a metaphor for eternity. Complete darkness has no beginning or end. It has infinite measurements. The dark could also stand for the instant that life is taken from his body. He then wishes for no one to mourn his journey into eternity. For it is his time to go, just like everyone else has a time.

When he embarks on his journey into eternity, he will be taken far away from that time and place. Once he arrives, he wants to see God face to face. He must have been a Christian since he referred to God as his pilot. This helps to calm the seriousness of his death by saying that God, who has guided him on his journey through life, will also guide him on the journey through death. Tennyson uses a sand bar as a metaphor to describe the b

Some common words found in the essay are:
Meaning Tennyson, Crossing Bar, sand bar, Lord Tennyson, crossing bar, journey eternity,

Approximate Word count = 580
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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