Crossing the Bar
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 deepTurns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,And after that the dark!And may there be no sadness of farewell,When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and PlaceThe flood may bear me far,I hope to see my Pilot face to faceWhen I have cross’d the bar.
Words in this poem
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- bourne n.
- A stream or rivulet; a burn. [OE. burne, borne, AS. burna; akin to OS. brunno spring, G. born, brunnen, OHG. prunno, Goth. brunna, Icel. brunnr, and perh. to Gr. burn, v., because the source]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Crossing the Bar is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, Crossing the Bar, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/crossing-the-bar.html, id L25233.
Form and metre
Crossing the Bar is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB starA · meB · barA · seaB
- 2 ABAB asleepA · foamB · deepA · homeB
- 3 ABAB bellA · darkB · farewellA · embarkB
- 4 ABAB placeA · farB · faceA · barB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sunset and evening star, | 6 | /··/˘· |
| And one clear call for me! | 6 | ······ |
| And may there be no moaning of the bar, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When I put out to sea, | 6 | ······ |
| But such a tide as moving seems asleep, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Too full for sound and foam, | 6 | ······ |
| When that which drew from out the boundless deep | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Turns again home. | 4 | ·˘/· |
| Twilight and evening bell, | 6 | /··/˘· |
| And after that the dark! | 6 | ······ |
| And may there be no sadness of farewell, | 10 | ·····/˘··/ |
| When I embark; | 4 | ··˘/ |
| For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place | 10 | ····/····· |
| The flood may bear me far, | 6 | ······ |
| I hope to see my Pilot face to face | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When I have cross’d the bar. | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.