O How Symbolic The Bar Is

In "Crossing the Bar," Tennyson told how he felt about death by used such symbolism that he made death seem like water hitting the shore on a high tide. The bar, also known as the sand bar is the place where the ocean meets the land or as he refers to as himself and the water which seems to be referred to as death. But, what is symbolic about this is at the end of the poem when he says,"For though from out our bourne (boundary) 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." In this last four lines Tennyson uses symbolism by saying that when the time has come and you are in the right place death can overcome or "flood" you and take you to your God (Pilot) once you have entered the gate of heaven (the bar). He basically uses symbolism to relate a godly realm like heaven to the shore of an ocean and in a way to express how things can be washed up by the shore or disappear after a person's death. This shows his great ability to incorporate his use of symbolism because I can see how dying and being forgotten can be like a shore on a beach. Like for example, when a person walks on the beach close to the bar of the sand they leave footprints, but when a tide comes and washes over the shore the footprints disappear. The reason that he probably put this poem as the last poem in each one of his volumes was so that he will not be forgotten and the works of his symbolic writing will still be remembered after he is gone.