Md Daniyal Ansari

Prof. Asmat Jahan

MA English Semester III

Poetry II

Q. Do you agree that sea is the central image in Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”? Discuss.

A. The 1889 poem, “Crossing the Bar” was written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is believed that he
wrote the poem on the sea, crossing the Solent from Aldworth to Farringford on the Isle of Wight.
Lord Tennyson was a Victorian poet and remained the poet laureate of England and Ireland during his
lifetime. He is known and appreciated to this day for his short lyrics.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote the poem “Crossing the Bar” in the form of an elegy; the narrator uses
an extended metaphor to compare death with crossing the "sandbar" between the river of life, with
its outgoing "flood", and the ocean that lies beyond the end of human life, the "boundless deep", to
which we return. "Crossing the Bar" opens with a metaphor that focusses on "Sunset and (the) evening
star" to immediately suggest that something is about to end. Specifically, the narrator interprets these
images of evening as a signal that his life is nearly over, as the poem later reveals explicitly.

Before he died, he asked his son to “put ‘Crossing the Bar’ at the end of all editions of my poems”. The
poem Crossing the Bar focusses on the transience of life and the inevitability of death. Tennyson wrote
the poem when he was eighty years old and was suffering from a severe illness, from which he
eventually recovered. This illness of his made him ponder over the idea of ‘Death’ as he himself was
very old and nearing his time. He metaphorizes crossing a sand bar to represent death in this poem.
He died three years after writing the poem, and although he wrote a few more poems, he requested
that all of his poetry volumes be ended with this poem. Thus, the poem is significant and can be seen
as Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s choice of his final words. In his poem, Tennyson talks about a goodbye
without grief, and moving on from worldly life to heavenly afterlife where the creation finds himself
closer to the creator. Hence, Tennyson discourages mourning for the dead. The Christian idea of
afterlife is engrained into the poem without actually describing the place. This belief in religious ideas
and still acknowledging the logical uncertainty of the afterlife is what Tennyson found his creativity in.
The inevitability of life and the promise of the afterlife is clearly shown in the poem and the sea plays
a major part in it.

Tennyson constructs an extended metaphor of a sailor who is on the verge of crossing the sandbar
between the tidal area and the sea itself, and uses it to represent the passing of a human being or in
fact, any living creature from life of earthly existence to life beyond death. A ‘bar’ simply means a strip
of sand in shallow sea at the coast. Tennyson needs to cross this bar, and it can be crossed in only on
direction. The speaker hopes that the sea does not cause chaos at the time of his crossing that bar as
he sets out to the sea. Instead, he wishes for an up-tide that is so full that it overwhelms all noises.
These noises represent the mourners’ cries and the grief that is felt by the speaker’s family and friends.

'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 sea has always been ruthless in its manner of functionality. The death of the speaker is just
another tide for the sea, where it takes with it what it had once granted. Such a powerful force of
nature holds no grudges against life as it is barely affected by it. Thus, it has no malice when it takes a
life with it, for it is just doing what its nature allows it to do. The white noise of the tide indicates
towards the peaceful passing of the speaker, a step towards fulfilling his destiny to meet his creator.
The tide, when it returns to the sea, takes the speaker with it, without any tears and heartbreak, like
going to meet an old friend again. The speaker through this idea, tells his audience that any form of
sadness at his passing is futile as he is just returning to where he came from, the world of divine, where
he will now cherish his afterlife in the presence of God.

‘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.’

The differing lengths of lines is significant towards the meaning it carries, reinforcing the movement
of a tide washing upon the sand, a process that is cyclical in nature.

It is also important to notice the ‘bar’ that Tennyson has created between life and death in the poem.
There are certain things he is sure about and certain things that he can only hope about or assume.
This distinction is made clearly through the language he uses. For example, the poet is certain about
where his journey comes to an end.

'When I put out to sea'

'When I embark'

'When I have crossed the bar’

The use of the word ‘when’ suggests towards the Tennyson’s belief in what is about to come in his
life. This contrasts with 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'

The sea is thus, a significant force of nature and holds the same authority over the poem and over the
life of the speaker. It is a force of such magnitude that it cannot possibly be bothered by the negligibly
short lifespan of a human being and its actions during said years. The sea does what it has to, it gives
to the earth with every high tide, and takes it back with every down tide. The life of the speaker has
to embrace this power, and not fight it as one would against the oppressor, for the sea carries no
malice, it merely fulfils its destiny.