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Crossing the Bar Stanzas ane-2

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Stanzas 1-2

Lines 1-2

Sunset and evening star,
    And ane clear telephone call for me!

• The poem opens with the speaker talking nigh the "sunset" and the "evening star." Information technology is the end of the day ("sunset"), and the evening star, which is really the planet Venus, is ascension.
• The end of the day is, manifestly, a "clear call" for the speaker. Just a "clear call" for what? To go habitation? Is there some kind of horn blowing? Does he have really stellar reception on his cell?
• At this point in the poem, information technology's however likewise early to tell, just we'll keep the image in listen. Peradventure information technology'southward a metaphor for something.
• Just await a minute. We know already that Tennyson wrote this puppy when he was nearing the finish of his life. So possibly—merely maybe—he's speaking metaphorically here about his approaching death. That would explain the sunset, and the call could be all those trumpets, beckoning him to heaven.
• But then again, the speaker is also trying not to call up virtually himself.

Lines iii-4

And may there be no moaning of the bar,
    When I put out to bounding main,

• The speaker hopes there will exist no "moaning of the bar" when he puts out to bounding main. Sage words, those are. If there'south ane thing Shmoop knows, it's that moaning and moping in bars is always a bad idea.
• Except the bar hither refers to a sandbar—not the boozy kind. Sandbars often grade in the mouths of rivers and harbors, and they're something you demand to get past if you're hoping to set sail on the wide-open up ocean.
• Apparently the speaker doesn't desire the sandbar to be disturbed by his departure. Just if nosotros really are talking figuratively most death hither (every bit we guessed in the offset two lines), then we'll have to interpret what'south going on in those terms.
• If he is talking about his departure from life (and not a literal departure from an bodily harbor), and then he doesn't desire the sandbar, or anybody else for that thing, to make a huge fuss out of it.
• In that sense, it sounds like the sandbar is a metaphor for the purlieus between life and decease, or life and the afterlife. And to reach the afterlife, he has to cross that bar.
• Shmoopers and Shmoopettes, now that we have one stanza backside usa, information technology'south time to talk form. We know we're working with something traditional because we've got some rhyming activeness going down. Star rhymes with bar, and me rhymes with sea. Looks like we've got ourselves a skilful old-fashioned ABAB rhyme scheme.
• Simply what nearly meter? Well, that'due south a little less clear. Lines 1, 2, and 4 all take 6 syllables and a sort of daDUM daDUM feeling about them. And line 3 has ten syllables, hinting at iambic pentameter. It seems like nosotros'll be dealing with a mix of iambic meters in this poem, so head on over to the "Grade and Meter" section for more.

Lines five-six

Only such a tide as moving seems comatose,
    Too full for sound and foam

• Looks like, instead of a moaning bar, our speaker would rather sail on "such a tide every bit moving seems asleep." Get it? Got it? No?
• Shmoop'due south got your dorsum. Basically, he's only saying that he'd rather exist sailing at high tide, when that sandbar is buried way beneath the water.
• In order for that to happen, the tide has to be "too full for sound and foam." In other words, the tide has to be high plenty that waves won't break on the sandbar. He can just sheet right over it, and be on his merry (mortiferous) way.
• Tennyson is actually flexing his verse muscles here. Not simply is he using the metaphor of sailing to talk nigh boot the saucepan (and seriously, which one would you rather talk about?), he's too using some figurative language to describe the sea on which he sails. He wants it to seem asleep as it moves, as if the sea were alive.

Lines 7-8

When that which drew from out the boundless deep
    Turns once more home.

• More tide metaphors here. In fact, nosotros're verging into extended metaphor territory here, when you consider the fact that he's been going on about the tide for a good two stanzas.
• Hither, he's continuing the hope he laid out at the beginning of the stanza—that when he sets sail for, you know, the grand hazard that is death, he wants the tide to exist high.
• Only in this case, he'southward using more than fancy figurative language to say it.
• "That which drew from out the boundless deep"? That'due south the tide, beingness drawn out into the sea (or "boundless deep") by the moon when the tide is low.
• "When information technology turns again home" refers to when the tide comes back in, filling the harbor and covering the sandbar.
• If the tide is in, that makes for shine sailing for our speaker. He tin can cruise right out over that sandbar with cypher standing betwixt him and the boundless deep. Lucky him?
• There's a flip side to this reading though. You might also call back that "that which" actually refers to the speaker. Every bit in, he hopes the tide volition exist cooperative when his soul returns to its domicile in the boundless deep, or death.

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Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/poetry/crossing-the-bar/summary/stanzas-1-2

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