View Crossing The Bar Poem Pics. The poem, written in 1889, is a metaphorical meditation on death, which sees the speaker comparing dying—or a certain way of dying—to gently crossing the sandbar between a coastal area and the wider sea/ocean. The narrator uses an extended metaphor to compare death with crossing the sandbar between the river of life, with its outgoing flood, and the ocean that lies beyond death.
'crossing the bar' was written in 1889 when the poet was visiting the isle of wight and published in a volume demeter and other poems (1889).
And may there be no sadness of farewell. 'crossing the bar' was one of alfred, lord tennyson 's last poems, composed in 1889, just three years before the end of a long life and prolific career. The poem was read as part of john short's funeral service on easter saturday, 15 april 1933. (he would be uk poet laureate for 42 years in total, from 1850 until 1892, a record never unsurpassed.)