nd he sat him down in a lonely place,
And chanted a melody loud and sweet,
That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud,
And the lark drop down at his feet.

The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee,
The snake slipt under a spray,
The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak,
And stared, with his foot on the prey,
And the nightingale thought, "I have sung many songs,
But never a one so gay,
For he sings of what the world will be
When the years have died away."

349

Those who live near the sea know that outside a
harbor a bar is formed of earth washed down
from the land. At low tide this may be so near
the surface as to be dangerous to ships passing
in and out, and the waves may beat against it
with a moaning sound. In his eighty-first year
Tennyson wrote "Crossing the Bar" to express
his thought about death. He represents the soul
as having come from the boundless deep of
eternity into this world-harbor of Time and
Place, and he represents death as the departure
from the harbor. He would have no lingering
illness to bar the departure. He would have the
end of life's day to be peaceful and without
sadness of farewell, for he trusts that his
journey into the sea of eternity will be guided
by "my Pilot." This poem may be somewhat beyond
the comprehension of eighth-grade pupils, but
they can perceive the beauty of the imagery and
music, and later in life it will be a source of
hope and comfort.

CROSSING THE BAR

ALFRED TENNYSON

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 crossed the bar.

350

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was an English essayist,