What is Crossing the Bar about?

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Lithograph portrait of Alfred, Lord Tennyson with wavy hair, a full beard, and a serious expression, shown in three-quarter view wearing a dark coat. — Alfred, Lord Tennyson Portrait of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, lithograph published in *The Modern Portrait Gallery*, 1890.

"Crossing the Bar" is a short poem written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1889, when he was 80 years old. Inspired by a ferry trip to the Isle of Wight, the poem serves as a meditation on his own approaching death and his hopes for an afterlife. Tennyson held the work in such high regard that he requested it be printed as the final poem in all future collections of his verse.12