Latest / The Daily Poem / Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”
Transcript
- 0:00[music]
- 0:05SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: It's called Crossing the Bar.
- 0:19SPEAKER_00: I'll read it once, offer a few comments, and read it one more time.
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: Crossing the Bar
- 0:27SPEAKER_00: Sunset and evening star And one clear call for me
- 0:31SPEAKER_00: And may there be no moaning of the bar When I put out to sea.
- 0:36SPEAKER_00: But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
- 0:39SPEAKER_00: Too full for sound and foam,
- 0:42SPEAKER_00: When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.
- 0:47SPEAKER_00: Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark.
- 0:51SPEAKER_00: And may there be no sadness of farewell When I embark.
- 0:55SPEAKER_00: For though from out are born of time and place The flood may bear me far,
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: I hope to see my pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar.
- 1:08SPEAKER_00: Something very typically Victorian about this poem,
- 1:11SPEAKER_00: Tennyson seeing death in nature,
- 1:14SPEAKER_00: but it's a lovely extended metaphor that he lights upon.
- 1:18SPEAKER_00: The bar in question is a sandbar.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: It has to be sailed past, traversed in order to reach open water.
- 1:28SPEAKER_00: This is a great metaphor because he finds so many aspects that will line up and lay
- 1:35SPEAKER_00: over the actual subject he's contemplating.
- 1:39SPEAKER_00: These bars,
- 1:40SPEAKER_00: when the tide is out,
- 1:41SPEAKER_00: when there's not enough water, you can hear splashing and lapping against them.
- 1:47SPEAKER_00: And then he speaks of the water and the tide,
- 2:11SPEAKER_00: That which drew from out the boundless deep, turning again home.
- 2:15SPEAKER_00: But of course,
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: imagines himself,
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: this soul of his that has a point of divine creation and origin returning
- 2:25SPEAKER_00: to its source.
- 2:27SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a sense in which this contemplation itself is part of the ensuring of
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: the peaceful journey he imagines and hopes for.
- 2:36SPEAKER_00: Preparing for death so that when death comes,
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: There will be,
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: as he says,
- 2:41SPEAKER_00: no sadness of farewell,
- 2:43SPEAKER_00: because as he imagines in the final stanza,
- 2:46SPEAKER_00: this departure will be at the same time a kind of reunion in which he will hope
- 2:51SPEAKER_00: to see his pilot face to face.
- 2:55SPEAKER_00: Here's the poem one more time.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: Sunset and evening star and one clear call for me.
- 3:03SPEAKER_00: May there be no moaning of the bar when I put out to sea.
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
- 3:10SPEAKER_00: too full for sound and foam,
- 3:13SPEAKER_00: when that which drew from out the boundless deep turns again home.
- 3:18SPEAKER_00: Twilight and evening bell,
- 3:20SPEAKER_00: and after that the dark, and may there be no sadness of farewell when I embark.
- 3:26SPEAKER_00: For though from out are born of time and place the flood may bear me far,
- 3:31SPEAKER_00: I hope to see my pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar.
- 3:39SPEAKER_00: This has been The Daily Poem.
- 3:41SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
- 3:42SPEAKER_00: We'll be back tomorrow with another subscriber episode and here on the main channel on Friday.
- 3:47SPEAKER_00: Find us at dailypoempod.substack.com to listen to more episodes of The Daily Poem.
- 3:54SPEAKER_00: Our whole back catalog is available there.
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- 4:01SPEAKER_00: For all of us at Goldberry Studios, I'm Sean Johnson wishing you happy reading.