Crossing the Bar Themes

If the sandbar is Tennyson's metaphor for the boundary between life and death, then "Crossing the Bar" is all about crossing from life to death. But if you think you're in for a morbid poem, you're...

"Crossing the Bar" isn't just about death; it's also about what comes before death in most cases—old age. The references to sunset and evening in the poem remind us that the evening of the speake...

One of the great ironies of "Crossing the Bar" is that the speaker's departure from the harbor—from life—isn't really a departure at all. In one way, the speaker seems to suggest that he is lea...