"Crossing the Bar" (1889)

Alfred Lord Tennyson

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 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 through 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 poem that I have chosen to analyse ,”Crossing the bar” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, seems on the surface to be about a travel which is on the point of taking place. However, at a deeper level, Tennyson is highlighting the fact that our life has to end up sooner or later and we must not feel sadness because we will have God with us at that moment.

 

First of all, as I mentioned before, one of the main ideas of the poem is the ending of our life as human beings. We will die when our time comes. The poet interprets the “sunset” and “the evening star” as the beginning of his decay and his death (first verse). Furthermore, in the third stanza, he mentions again the “twilight and evening bell” as the signal for him to embark on the travel “for through from out our bourne of Time and Place” (fourth stanza). Thus, he considers his time has come.

 

This mental image created by the author of the star shinning as the bell which is showing him the way to death is strongly linked to the painting “The Light of the World”, by William Holman Hunt. 

 

As we can observe, the painting shows the figure of Jesus, whose crown makes his head shine in contrast with the rest of the place surrounding him. Jesus has an oil lamp on him which is also shinning. These two elements (the oil lamp and the crown) can be interpreted as “the evening star”, that is a “call” for the poet. Moreover, Jesus is raising his right arm and his hand seems to be showing the way to somewhere, like the way to death, which is going to be followed by the poet. Jesus seems to be guiding the poet through a way that he does not know, but as he says, he does not  have to be afraid of discovering it because (“may there be no sadness of farewell when I embark”, third stanza) he knows God will be with him.

This feeling is the one that I consider is transmitted by Jesus’ face. The expression of his face is an expression of peace and tranquility, which is in contrast with the insecurity and fear that the darkness transmits.

 

The Jesus’ face expression is what is going to make us feel comfortable  during the last period of his life. This is what the poet hopes in his travel, “ I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar” (fourth stanza). So, the figure of the “Pilot” is the figure of Jesus, who will guide him in his travel.

 

In my opinion, the poem is completely straightforward in meaning, because he is able to reflect perfectly this real connection between the protagonist and his necessity to appeal to religion to face his death in a comfortable way.

On the other hand, the structure of the poem is quite simple. It is divided into four stanzas, each one with four verses, whose rhyme is constantly “a,b,a,b”. Tennyson is the narrator , from what we can deduce that he is the person who is dying. He is telling what he feels as a personal story.

 

The poem is written in a very accessible language. The poet makes use of first person speech, exclamations in two occasions (“And one clear call for me!”; “And after that the dark!”, first and third stanzas) probably to transmit the sense of the poem to the reader by involving him in the situation. Finally, Tennyson uses in three occasions capital letters to write some key words: “Time”; “Place”; “Pilot” (all of them from the last stanza). This is due to the fact that he is highlighting that he is going to pass from the time and place’s parameters which caracterises the human life to another unknown place after death.

He is clearly conscious that he is going to die unavoidably, however, he finds consolation not even in God, but in the hope of finding God, his “Pilot”, face to face.

 

Besides, we can find a good deal of religiosity in the poem. It appears as the only salvation of human beings to face up our inexorable fate.The imagery used by the poet: “the sunset”, “the tide”… evoke the loneliness from which the poet is accepting his fate. As opposed to this, “evening star or “my Pilot” are concepts that provides from a religious perspective comfort, hope and comfort to the poet. Finally, the tittle facilitates the image of the poet embarking on his travel towards a mysterious place.

 

As a conclusion, I would like to finish by saying that I have chosen this poem in relation to this painting because it is really shocking for me the way in which Tennyson deals with so delicate a topic as it is death. I really like the poem as it is a clear reflection of what we all are as human beings, making evident our frailty and the power of our mind to help us to assume the hardest part of our life, which is our death.

 

 

 

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