Quotes from work
Crossing the Bar

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"Crossing the Bar" is an 1889 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is considered that Tennyson wrote it in elegy; the narrator uses an extended metaphor to compare death with crossing the "sandbar" between river of life, with its outgoing "flood", and the ocean that lies beyond [death], the "boundless deep", to which we return.

“Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Crossing the Bar

St. 3
Crossing the Bar (1889)

“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.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Crossing the Bar

St. 4
Crossing the Bar (1889)

“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.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Crossing the Bar

St. 1
Crossing the Bar (1889)

“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.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Crossing the Bar

St. 2
Crossing the Bar (1889)