Title

"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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

The Victorian Web: An Overview 'Crossing the bar'

George P. Landow (January 2000)

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/crossing/html (1-4-06)

POETIC COMMENTARY

RELATION BETWEEN THE POEM AND ITS CONTEXT:

“‘Crossing the bar’ is a poem written by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) and that was published in 1889”. (VictorianWeb, Tennyson) “From 1830 to 1901, England went through an age known as the Victorian Period. The second Industrial Revolution; "The Woman Question.” and the bourgeoisie arise, are some facts that characterized this age.” (ARTEHISTORIA.COM) I have interpreted the poem in relation with the facts that are part of the historical context and with Tennyson’s life.

‘Crossing the bar’ coincides with the last years of Alfred Tennyson’s life. The death plays an important role all his life and he wrote lots of poems based on that theme: ‘In Memoriam’, ‘The Passing of Arthur’, ‘Ulysses’, and ‘Tithonus’. ‘The desire for escape from the tangled ugliness of the world to the peace of death is voiced over and over in Tennyson’. (VictorianWeb, Tennysson)

The principle reason why Tennyson started to write about death in his poetry was because in 1833 one of his best friends, Arthur Henry Hallam, died for illness. This shocked Tennyson and he reflected it in his poetry. (Victorian Web, Tennysson)

‘Crossing the bar’ is about death too, but in this case his own death. Although he was all his life worried about death, because of his mental illness, in the poem he speaks about that courageously. When he wrote the poem he was around 80 years old and it permitted him to face up to death with more courage and maturity. In addition, he looks at death positively because he believes in God and he think he is going to go to heaven. There, he will meet his loved ones, who died, again.

First of all, on the surface, the poem is about that Tennyson is looking how death is close to him and he can sense how it’s going to be.

To begin with the poem, the title “Crossing the bar” could mean two things. The first one is to cross the borderline which separates life and death. The second one is to break the frontier that separates the past life and the new life, which presents the Revolution and the advances in science and society, the progress.

Tennyson lived from 1853 on the Isle of Wight. Maybe there, he developed his passion for sea. In the first stanza, he introduces this nature’s element (Victorian Web, Tennysson). There is a metaphor as regards death: Sea = Death. He associates the sea as the eternity in which he embarks when he is dying. In addition, ‘evening star’ refers to the moon. The poet associates death with sunset, when sun disappears to give way to darkness.

In the second stanza, the first is that death is near, getting closer placid to the poet. On the other hand, he remarks the moment when the tide or the waves reach a high point and few seconds after that, it returns to the sea, as if it comes home. The same happens with death. When it lay in wait, generates a shocking fear and few seconds after that, you die. The poet compares death with home to make it more familiar, to show us death as a place without danger.

In the 3^rd stanza, the first interpretation is that the feeling of knowing that you are going to die is generally suffocating and distressing, however, the poet is very calm. When the bells sound announced him that death is there, very closed to him. The poet remarks the ‘evening’ to associate death and he uses the point ‘dark’ to enhance the moment when you die. It is the contrary that lots of people think. They believe that when you die, you see some kind of light which guides you through heaven. Tennyson says that after death there is just darkness.

In the last stanza, he concludes believing he has been a good person all his life and he deserves to be rewarded with heaven. There, he could see God’s face when he passed the imaginary barrier that separates life and death.

In relation with the historical context, in the first stanza, the poet reflects on death and he thinks that when it arrives, there’s nothing to do. Everybody knows that death one day will come to each one and maybe it is not as terrible as we thought. This is a characteristic that points out ‘the field of the culture in the Victorian Period, the positivism’ (ARTEHISTORIA.COM).

In the second stanza, there is an aspect to enhance. The 4^th line could mean that people are apparently asleep but, inside of them, there is a spirit of Revolution. As I have mentioned at the beginning, The Revolution was the most important characteristic of the XIX century in England from the political, industrial and social point of view.

In the fourth stanza, the two last lines are related to religion. The “Pilot” can be “God” and “When I have crost the bar” means that, the poet thinks he deserves to go through heaven and see God when he dies. We have another time the positivism. Furthermore, Tennyson compares the Pilot of the boat, in which he is going to embark, with God. For the poet, God is in charge of Tennyson’s life.

Moreover it is composed of four stanzas of four lines each one. It has rhyming verse and it is ‘a b a b, c d c d’, etc… In the internal structure of the poem, repetition stands out. Repetitions make the poem simple. The first and the third stanzas are related. Both share two words of the 1^st line of each one: ‘and evening’, and the beginning of the rest of lines: ‘And’, ‘And may there be’, ‘When I’. The last lines of every stanza are interrelated. There is a sequence of events. The first is ‘When I put out to sea’. The poet is talking about a fact that will happen in the future. The second is ‘Turns again home’. Maybe he is comparing death with before birth, when you are not aware jet. Tennyson thinks that “all progress has its return”. In line 12, ‘When I embark’ is just the moment when there is no return. If you embark, you couldn’t go down, you just have travel. The last line ‘When I have crossed the bar’ is the final moment when he arrived at his destiny, the death.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

The Victorian Web: An Overview ‘Alfred, Lord Tennyson’, Gorge P. Landow (January 2000)

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/bioov.html (1-4-06)

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