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Crossing the Bar
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92)
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 tho' 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.
This is the last one of my
compositions that wasn't written originally on the computer. It is
simple but effective I think.
There have been several notable
musical settings of the poem from the
anthem setting of Sir Hubert Parry to the modern folk-like version
of Salamander Crossing.
All the descriptions of how this poem
came to be written seem to vary; the "bar" of the title is undoubtedly
a sandbar but it's original location seems to change from version to
version (It's usually thought to be off the Isle of Wight.). Tennyson,
though, uses it as a metaphor for dying and he insisted it be published
at the end of all collections of his poetry. Though it is generally
assumed, with some justification, that the "Pilot" at the end of the
poem refers to God, apparently the poet did not entirely hold
conventional religious views. Therefore it is sometimes thought that it
may refer to his friend Arthur Henry Hallam (1811-33) whose early death
inspired the famous poem "In Memoriam".
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