Crossing the Bar Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay

Water water everywhere. And not a drop of it is literal. That's right, folks, in this poem, the ocean is one whopper of a metaphor, representing that Great Gig in the Sky, death.Lines 3-4: The spea...

Sunset. Twilight. Dark. Yep, that's pretty much how it goes when you die. First, you grow a little older, a little crustier. Then you grow really old and crusty. And finally, you reach the point of...

For a poem about death, this one sure is noisy. Mostly, those noises are there to remind us of the human grief that surrounds death, but they're also the death knell itself—a sound to remind the...

If the sea represents death, well then sailing represents that long, slow journey toward death. Setting out from the safe harbor of life and into the great unknown of death is the central metaphor...