ABSTRACT
Published 1889. It is not in the Virginia trial edition of 1889. Written Oct. 1889 while crossing the Solent: ‘When he repeated it to me in the evening, I said, “That is the crown of your life’s work.” He answered, “It came in a moment”’ (H.T.). P. L. Elliott notes that in MS Mat. (Lincoln) H.T.’s words had been: ‘That is one of the most beautiful poems ever written’ (The Making of the Memoir, 1978, p. 14). T. said to W. F. Rawnsley that he ‘began and finished it in twenty minutes’ (Nineteenth Century xcvii (1925) 195). It had been in T.’s mind since April or May 1889, when his nurse suggested he write a hymn after his recovery from a serious illness (J. Tennyson, The Times, 5 Nov. 1936). For the image, cp. De Profundis (III 67), and The Passing of Arthur 445: ‘From the great deep to the great deep he goes.’ The ‘bar’ is the sandbank across the harbour-mouth. All variants from H.Nbk 54 are below. D. Sonstroem argues that the poem is a reconciliation of a great many of T.’s earlier poems (VP viii, 1970, 55–60). The poem is here printed out of sequence because of T.’s wish: ‘Mind you put my Crossing the Bar at the end of all editions of my poems.’ Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home. Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar.
