What is an Elegy?

‘an elegy is a sad poem, especially for someone

who has died.’
In simple terms, an elegy is a poem that
represents the human emotion of sadness,
especially while rememberingand mourning the
deceased beloveds. No person in this world has
passed without witnessing a loved one die,
andtherefore, sadness becomes, arguably, the
common emotion among human beings.
Poetry, which usually is aliterary translation of
human emotions, is has been a means of
expressing grief and sorrow since times
immemorial.Hence, classifying a poem as an
elegy mustn’t be a difficult chore.
Crossing the Bar as an Elegy
To analyze Crossing the Bar as an elegy, I would
like to present the features of an elegy, and
then relate LordTennyson’s poem to it.
Focus on Expressing Emotions
Elegy, as discussed earlier, is a depiction of
human emotions like sadness, grief, and
sorrow. All of these are amplyportrayed in
Cross the Bar. For instance, in the 3 & 4 lines of
the first stanza, Tennyson speaks about
themourning of the sandbar, which is symbolic
of the mourning of people over the death of
their loved ones. Likewise,in the third stanza,
the poet talks about bidding goodbye to
beloveds and indicating how painful they can
be. he is discussing his own death, he doesn’t
want his near and dear ones to mourn and cry
when he leaves for hisultimate journey
Mourning the Passing Away of Life
Elegy is mostly written in connection with
the death of someone loved, a family
member, or a friend. WhileTennyson, too,
expresses the grief and sorrow around
death, he does it a little differently. Instead
of mourningothers, he sketches his own
death, anticipating how others would
mourn when he passes away. Throughout
thepoem, he expresses his wish to pass
away by making others cry of even
disturbing them a bit. And though this is
aunique setting, it stays true to this
particular feature of an elegy

COnclusion
Lord Tennyson’s favourite poem, Crossing
the Bar is a perfect elegy, possessing all the
essential elements to qualifyas one.
Secondly, the emotions portrayed in the
poem are deep and multi-layered, which is
a good reason why itcontinues to be a
subject of study even after 120 years since it
was written.
However, the most riveting conclusion that I
have had after studying the poem through
various sources andperspectives is Tennyson’s
art of discussing and debating subjects as
complex, metaphysical, and philosophical aslife,
death, afterlife, and immortality hidden
beneath the multiple layers. While a
macroscopic overview will help usunderstand
the formal structure applied, the emotions
expressed, and topics discussed, a microscopic
study revealsthat there a lot going on within
the poetry, and literary researchers will
continue to strive and study Crossing theBars
and other great poetry of the great British poet.