Alfred Lord Tennyson

ALFRED LORD TENYSSON “CROSSING THE BAR”
1ST Impressions

When I first read this poem, my first impression was of a man going on a trip to the sea. He was a grown up man, maybe around his 50’s. He was alone, he had no company in that moment and it seemed like everything was going to be better when he has crossed the bar. There was going to be no sadness or farewell, the ocean was calm (was“asleep”) so I thought that the man wasn’t in a rush, he was in peace, but he was saying goodbye to someone or something.
I chose this poem because it was simple, the theme was very attractive and the language it was used had connection with literary devices. We had two options but we chose this one because it wasn’t a long poem but in few lines it could express many feelings and emotions.Finally the last argument of why I chose this poem is that it was not easy to understand so it was a challenge for me and while I was reading, I could think about many questions that we could use at the end of the analysis.
(Florencia)
My first impression about the poem crossing the bar is that their's a person in a sunset that is called for something, because apparently he needs to go to a certainplace, and when it seems to get better, it doesn't. He sees light and good things when suddenly everything get's dark, and when he leaves maybe the people will not be sad about he leaving. He may go far away and doesn't even know where, but he hopes to see a special person when he already has left.
I chose this poem because it is easy to understand and it is short and that, helps me to focuswell in everything that says and translate what the author wanted to say in a better way.
Maybe the author is talking about a personal experience and wants to let know to his readers about what is happening to him.






Author Biography
Lord Alfred Tennyson was born in August 6th 1809 and died on October 6th 1892. He was a poet laureate of the United Kingdom, George and ElizabethTennyson’s son.
The lurid history of Tennyson's family is interesting in itself, but some knowledge of it is also essential for understanding the recurrence in his poetry of themes of madness, murder, avarice, social climbing, marriages arranged for profit instead of love, and estrangements between families and friends. 
Tenysson’s father also had a lifelong fear of mental illness, for several menin his family had a mild form of epilepsy, which was then thought a shameful disease. His father and brother Arthur made their cases worse by excessive drinking. In the late twenties his father's physical and mental condition worsened, and he became paranoid, abusive, and violent.
Arthur Hallam's was the most important of these friendships. Hallam, another precociously brilliant Victorian youngman. He and Tennyson knew each other only four years, but their intense friendship had major influence on the poet. On a visit to Somersby, Hallam met and later became engaged to Emily Tennyson, and the two friends looked forward to a life-long companionship. Hallam's death from illness in 1833 (he was only 22) shocked Tennyson profoundly, and his grief lead to most of his best poetry,including In Memoriam and others.
We can say many things about Tennyson’s life, but what is important for us is to know tha
t he didn’t have an easy life, he suffer most of his childhood and part of his youth, because of the problems in his life, which produced a significant mark in his writing.

Time period notes
He wrote the poem “crossing the bar” in 1889, three years before he died. The poemdescribes his placid and accepting attitude towards death.
This was one of Tennyson’s beloved poems, which focuses on the passage from life to death in old age. He wrote it after a serious illness he had in his late 70’s. It was natural for him to write about death because he had always been fascinated with it. The death of his best friend Hallam sent Tennyson into depression.
The author lived in...