STANZAS 1-2 SUMMARY

Lines 1-2
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!

● The poem opens with the speaker talking about the "sunset" and the "evening star." It is
the end of the day ("sunset"), and the evening star, which is actually the planet Venus, is
rising.
● The end of the day is, apparently, a "clear call" for the speaker. But a "clear call" for
what? To go home? Is there some kind of horn blowing? Does he have really stellar
reception on his cell?
● At this point in the poem, it's still too early to tell, but we'll keep the image in mind.
Maybe it's a metaphor for something.
● But wait a minute. We know already that Tennyson wrote this puppy when he was
nearing the end of his life. So maybe—just maybe—he's speaking metaphorically here
about his approaching death. That would explain the sunset, and the call could be all
those trumpets, beckoning him to heaven.
● But then again, the speaker is also trying not to think about himself.

Lines 3-4
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

● The speaker hopes there will be no "moaning of the bar" when he puts out to sea. Sage
words, those are. It's that moaning and moping in bars is always a bad idea.
● Except the bar here refers to a sandbar—not the boozy kind. Sandbars often form in the
mouths of rivers and harbors, and they're something you need to get past if you're hoping
to set sail on the wide-open ocean. 
● Apparently the speaker doesn't want the sandbar to be disturbed by his departure. But if
we really are talking figuratively about death here (as we guessed in the first two lines),
then we'll have to interpret what's going on in those terms.
● If he is talking about his departure from life (and not a literaldeparture from an actual
harbor), then he doesn't want the sandbar, or anybody else for that matter, to make a huge
fuss out of it. 
● In that sense, it sounds like the sandbar is a metaphor for the boundary between life and
death, or life and the afterlife. And to reach the afterlife, he has to cross that bar.
● We know we're working with something traditional because we've got some rhyming
action going down. Star rhymes with bar, and me rhymes with sea. Looks like we've got
ourselves a good old-fashioned ABAB rhyme scheme.
● But what about meter? Well, that's a little less clear. Lines 1, 2, and 4 all have six
syllables and a sort of da DUM da DUM feeling about them. And line 3 has ten syllables,

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 hinting at iambic pentameter. It seems like we'll be dealing with a mix of iambic meters
in this poem, so head on over to the "Form and Meter" section for more.

Lines 5-6
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam

● Looks like, instead of a moaning bar, our speaker would rather sail on "such a tide as
moving seems asleep." Get it? Got it? No?
● Basically, he's just saying that he'd rather be sailing at high tide, when that sandbar is
buried way beneath the water. 
● In order for that to happen, the tide has to be "too full for sound and foam." In other
words, the tide has to be high enough that waves won't break on the sandbar. He can just
sail right over it, and be on his merry (deadly) way. 
● Tennyson is really flexing his poetry muscles here. Not only is he using the metaphor of
sailing to talk about kicking the bucket (and seriously, which one would you rather talk
about?), he's also using some figurative language to describe the sea on which he sails.
He wants it to seem asleep as it moves, as if the sea were alive.

Lines 7-8
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

● More tide metaphors here. In fact, we're verging into extended metaphor territory here,
when you consider the fact that he's been going on about the tide for a good two stanzas. 
● Here, he's continuing the hope he laid out at the beginning of the stanza—that when he
sets sail for, you know, the grand adventure that is death, he wants the tide to be high.
● Only in this case, he's using more fancy figurative language to say it. 
● "That which drew from out the boundless deep"? That's the tide, being drawn out into the
sea (or "boundless deep") by the moon when the tide is low. 
● "When it turns again home" refers to when the tide comes back in, filling the harbor and
covering the sandbar. 
● If the tide is in, that makes for smooth sailing for our speaker. He can cruise right out
over that sandbar with nothing standing between him and the boundless deep. Lucky
him?
● There's a flip side to this reading though. You might also think that "that which" actually
refers to the speaker. As in, he hopes the tide will be cooperative when his soul returns to
its home in the boundless deep, or death.

Lines 9-10
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!

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 ● Not that we're expert sailors or anything, but does it sound a little risky to anyone else
that this dude is setting sail at twilight of all times? Fair warning, the open ocean in the
pitch dark sounds like a recipe for sheer terror.
● But nevertheless, our speaker's headed that way—setting sail after the sun has set, and
planning to still be at sail when he reaches the open ocean, where electricity is hard to
come by.
● These lines call back to the first stanza, when the speaker cries, "sunset and evening star."
Only here, the imagery has changed a bit. It's now twilight (not sunset), and he hears a
bell, instead of a call. Time is passing—it's a bit later in the process.
● The bell reminds us of two things—the bells you might hear on boats in a harbor, and the
trumpets we mentioned in stanza 1, which call people to the afterlife.

Lines 11-12
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

● Oooh, things are getting personal. The speaker, when he finally sails on out of this
harbor, doesn't want the people he leaves behind to be bummed and make a big scene. 
● In fact, it sounds like he doesn't even want these folks to say goodbye at all. There's just
too much sadness in all that tear-jerking fanfare.
● In yet another echo of the first stanza, these words call back to the speaker's wish for no
"moaning of the bar."
● The gist here is that this guy wants to just slip away in the night—no muss, no fuss, no
awkward side hugs or cheek kisses. When he goes, he just wants to be gone.

Lines 13-16
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.

● speaker brings it home in this final stanza, wrapping up his sailing-as-death

extended metaphor and leaving us with a little spiritual hope to boot. 
● First, he says he knows that "the flood," or sea may "bear [him] far," or take him far
beyond the "bourne of Time and Place," or boundary of time and place.
● This is the first dead-on, unmistakable moment in which we know that this guy
is not talking about a weekend sail on his sloop. We mean, we've never heard of a seaside
town called Time and Place—have you?
● Then, he says that, even though he knows this is all gonna go down, it's cool, because he
thinks he's going to get to see his "Pilot face to face."
● What's that about? Well, if we're following the whole sailing-as-death metaphor through,
our best guess is that our speaker's Pilot (with that capital letter and all) is none other than
God himself—the man upstairs. Instead of a pilot of a boat, God has been the pilot of this
speaker's life.

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 ● And guess what? When the speaker finally crosses that sandbar and reaches the open
ocean—when he finally crosses over into death, we mean, he'll come face to face with
God in heaven. 
● So really, it's not all that bad. Sure, he's headed into darkness, but at least God's at the
other end of it.

Tennyson's Poems Summary and Analysis of "Crossing the Bar"

The sunset and evening star have come; it is time to go to sea. The fullness of the tide will
peacefully draw home the speaker. Soon it is even later: twilight and the evening bell, and then
darkness. It truly is time to go, without sadness. The stream may take him far beyond “Time and
Place,” hopefully to his ultimate destination where he will see his “Pilot face to face” after
crossing the bar.

Analysis
This short but evocative poem is often placed at the end of volumes of Tennyson’s poems, as he
requested. He wrote it in 1889 when he was 80 years old and recovering from a serious illness at
sea, crossing the Solent from Aldworth to Farringford on the Isle of Wight, off the mainland of
England. It is said that Tennyson composed it in twenty minutes. Tennyson’s illness and old age
may have contributed to this very personal and memorable meditation on death.

The poem contains four stanzas of four lines each, with a traditional ABAB rhyme scheme. It is
written as an elegy, utilizing an extended metaphor of a sailor crossing the sandbar between the
tidal area and the sea to represent a human being passing from life to existence beyond death.

The poem opens by evoking the fall of night, a reference to the poet being in the twilight of his
years. The evening star points his way, and he feels the “clear call” of death. He is almost ready;
the poem is tinged with excitement and acceptance. He expects the tide will be full, carrying him
smoothly and peacefully out of life, just as it carried him in. This process reflects his internal
contentment with his absorption into the natural process of life and death. There should be “no
moaning” when the time finally comes.

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In the last two stanzas, the time has come; it is moments away from darkness. He expects no
sadness, whether it is his or that of others, when he departs. The reason not to mourn is that he
has hope to see his Pilot, that is, God, face to face once he has passed into the afterlife.

As many critics and readers have observed, this poem contains many of the same themes and
images that the poet has used throughout his oeuvre. There is the sea voyage, the solitary
mariner, the patterns of life and death, and the setting sun. Thus it combines themes from
“Ulysses” and “Tithonus,” as well as other poems (including an allusion to Donne’s “Meditation
17,” from which “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is taken), to provide a final statement about death.
In “Ulysses,” the hero yearns for life despite approaching death and fights vigorously against the
quiet, complacent passing into the afterlife or even the nothingness that Tithonus would
welcome. As critic David Sonstroem notes, “Tithonus” is about “rest and stasis rather than
adventure and motion, where “adventure or aspiration is undesirable and unnatural.” Tithonus
can no longer appreciate the journey or contemplate his existence with any hopefulness, whereas
the poet of “Crossing the Bar” expresses optimism because he not only will reach the end but
also may find what lies beyond.

Indeed, in “Crossing the Bar,” death is peaceful and natural, a welcome and fitting pause to a life
lived well. In other poems that use a sea voyage as a metaphor for death, Tennyson presents it as
more disturbing, more confusing; “The Lady of Shalott,” “Morte d’Arthur,” and “Lancelot and
Elaine” are all examples of the poet not yet seeing such a voyage as peaceful. Sonstroem writes
that “all these contradictions [among the earlier poems] vanish, yet all the allusions to the earlier
poems retain their relevance: Tithonus’ longing for death is to be granted, yet the death is seen in
terms of Ulysses’ desire—a sea-voyage of discovery.”

Some writers have chosen to see a bit of Hallam in the Pilot; after all, reflecting on his friend
Hallam's death guided so many of Tennyson’s thoughts about death. But given Tennyson’s
cultural context, it is very likely that the identity of the Pilot is the Christian God. Jesus is
considered the pilot of the Church and guides the Christian’s life. Seeing God face to face is a
Biblical theme. Furthermore, the wordplay of “crossing” a “bar” suggests the cross of Jesus, the
transformational event that, in Christianity, enables people to be reconciled to God and reach
Heaven, which is beyond the Earth’s “Time and Place.”

Summary

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.

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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.

Commentary

Tennyson wrote “Crossing the Bar” in 1889, three years before he died. The poem describes his
placid and accepting attitude toward death. Although he followed this work with subsequent
poems, he requested that “Crossing the Bar” appear as the final poem in all collections of his
work.

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.” 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. The religious significance of
crossing was clearly familiar to Tennyson, for in an earlier poem of his, the knights and lords of
Camelot “crossed themselves for fear” when they saw the Lady of Shalott lying dead in her boat.
The cross was also where Jesus died; now as Tennyson himself dies, he evokes the image again.
So, too, does he hope to complement this metaphorical link with a spiritual one: he hopes that he
will “see [his] Pilot face to face.”

The ABAB rhyme scheme of the poem echoes the stanzas’ thematic patterning: the first and third
stanzas are linked to one another as are the second and fourth. Both the first and third stanzas
begin with two symbols of the onset of night: “sunset and evening star” and “twilight and
evening bell.” The second line of each of these stanzas begins with “and,” conjoining another
item that does not fit together as straightforwardly as the first two: “one clear call for me” and
“after that the dark!” Each of these lines is followed by an exclamation point, as the poet
expresses alarm at realizing what death will entail. These stanzas then conclude with a wish that
is stated metaphorically in the first stanza: “may there be no moaning of the bar / When I put out
to sea”; and more literally in the third stanza: “And may there be no sadness of farewell / When I
embark.” Yet the wish is the same in both stanzas: the poet does not want his relatives and
friends to cry for him after he dies. Neither of these stanzas concludes with a period, suggesting
that each is intimately linked to the one that follows.

The second and fourth stanzas are linked because they both begin with a qualifier: “but” in the
second stanza, and “for though” in the fourth. In addition, the second lines of both stanzas
connote excess, whether it be a tide “too full for sound and foam” or the “far” distance that the
poet will be transported in death.

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In 'Crossing the Bar', Tennyson is speaking about his own impending death.  Within the poem,
the image of the sea is used to represent the 'barrier' between life and death.  The construction of
this metaphor centres on the image of 'crossing the bar'; a 'bar' is physically a bar of sand in
shallow water.  The 'bar' which Tennyson must cross, however, can only be crossed in one
direction.  This is made explicit in a couple of ways by the poet.

Firstly, we should consider the wider imagery of the poem.  The poem opens with the phrase
'Sunset and evening star', immediately placing the reader in a setting at the end of the day.  The
metaphor can be extended to represent a late stage in the poet's life.  This reading is supported by
the opening of the third stanza: 'Twilight and evening bell, / And after that the dark!'  Time is
progressing as the poem develops, and after each reference to physical time, Tennyson makes a
personal reference to his future:

'And may there be no moaning of the bar, / When I put out to sea'
'And may there be no sadness of farewell, / When I embark'

The clear reference to Tennyson's 'moving on' enables us to interpret the image of evening as
representing old age.  The notion of passing time, evident in the physical darkening of the sky
from 'sunset' to 'twilight' to 'dark' is echoed in the rhythm of the poem.  Clearly, the poem speaks
about the sea, about a tide which 'turns again home'.  The tide, we are reminded, has done this
before; its rhythm will not be interrupted by the death of the poet.  The lengths of the lines
alternate between 10, six and four syllables with no fixed rotation:

10        But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

6          Too full for sound and foam,
10        When that which drew from out the boundless deep
4          Turns again home.

The differing lengths of lines evoke the movement of a tide washing upon a beach, something
which we all recognize to be cyclic.
Secondly, in considering how the poet has constructed the 'bar' between life and death, we must
look at the specifics of his language.  The poet is certain of his destination:

'When I put out to sea'

'When I embark'
'When I have crossed the bar'

The repetition of when makes it clear to the reader that the event the poet is discussing is firmly
placed in the future; it will happen, but hasn't happened yet.  We can contrast this to the use of
indefinite phrases in the poem:

'And may there be no moaning of the bar'

'And may there be no sadness of farewell'
'I hope to see my Pilot face to face'

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Tennyson makes a clear distinction between events which he knows will happen, and events
which he hopes will happen. He cannot assure that there will be 'no sadness of farewell', so he
cannot solidify the matter within the poem itself.

The final stanza of the poem is particularly interesting, and deserves some consideration within
itself:

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.

There are three aspects of this final stanza that are immediately striking; the capitalizations of
'Time', 'Place' and 'Pilot'.  We capitalize proper nouns, such as names and locations, suggesting
that Tennyson sees 'Time and Place' as a specific location, such as 'London', and 'his Pilot' as a
personal figure.  This adds to the element of certainty in the poem: Tennyson has in mind a
location in which he will end, and though he can only 'hope' to see his 'Pilot', he has an image he
aspires to meet with.

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