Crossing the Bar

Throughout Crossing the Bar, Alfred, Lord Tennyson uses many sea metaphors to talk about death. I assume the bar discussed in the poem is a sandbar. This sandbar symbolizes a division between two sides: the area of the bay and the expanse of the ocean. Crossing the sandbar is crossing over to another side like how the saying crossing to the other side is way of saying someone died. The unknown, uncharted expanse of the ocean symbolizes heaven which is unknown to living people. Alfred, Lord Tennyson writes, "And may there be no moaning of the bar." Alfred, Lord Tennyson is saying that he wants a peaceful death with no complaints. Later, Tennyson goes on to say that there should be no sadness when he leaves. This is a little more obvious since Tennyson does not want people to be upset when he dies. Tennyson even continues the sea metaphors when he talks about God by calling him "Pilot." The word Pilot is capitalized to show that he means God because we capitalize God.