Crossing The Bar

7 Pages 1804 Words

The second line, “one clear call for me”, purposes that this is his calling to another divine world, which he will soon have to hear (Anderson n.pag.). Sparknotes describes the sand bar, which is a ridge of sand built up by currents along a shoreline that separates the land from the ocean, as “the barrier between life and death” (Sparknotes 2). When Tennyson says “When I put out to sea”, he actually means in a metaphorical manner when he crosses from life to eternity because he refers to the land as life and the sea as eternity or death (Anderson n.pag.). The second stanza states, “But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam”, which metaphorically means that he shall have no fears when he should pass away and leave this world for another place (Sparknotes 2). Maxwell Anderson explains in “Tennyson’s Crossing The Bar’” that Tennyson yearns for a tide that has no corruption since it is too full with sound and foam, therefore seeming asleep. This metaphorically means that he shall have no fears when he should pass away and leave thi...