CROSSING THE BAR 259 CROSSING THE BAR Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, When that which drew from out the boundless deep 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 Place I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar. SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES 1. Why is the sunset hour chosen? 2. What does the evening star indicate? 3. Explain, "moaning of the bar." 4. "That which drew from out the boundless deep turns again home" is a symbol of what experience of the soul? 5. Then, according to Tennyson, what is death? 6. As twilight deepens, what change in the poet's mood? 7. What is the "bourne of Time and Place"? 8. Why are we left to imagine where the flood will bear him? 9. What triumphant hope of the poet makes death a happy home-returning? 10. If this poem has a universal meaning, what do each of the following stand for? (a) Sunset and twilight. (c) The bar. (d) The sea. (e) The Pilot. 11. Read the poem until you feel the beauty of its melody and the appropriateness of its rhythm. He whose soul comes into conscious touch with the Divine, can read this poem the hundredth time and find new meanings. REFERENCES WORDSWORTH: Intimations on Immortality. WHITTIER: At Last. My Triumph. LONGFELLOW: In the Harbor. Victor and Vanquished. EMERSON: Good-bye, Proud World. Terminus. THACKERAY: Death of Colonel Newcome. EDWIN ARNOLD: After Death. The Secret of Death. PRIEST: Over the River. STODDARD: The Soul's Defiance. MCCREERY: There is No Death. POPE: The Dying Christian to His Soul. A. L. BARBAULD: Life, I know not what thou art. MRS. BROWNING: The Sleep. ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE: The Hills of Rest. SILL: The Future. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE: The Other World. ALBERT GORTON GREENE: The Baron's Last Banquet. PAUL HAYNE: In Harbor. BRYANT: Thanatopsis. RALEIGH: Even Such is Time. STEVENSON: Requiem. PHOEBE CARY: Nearer Home. A FLOWER GARDEN NOT MINE And if I share my crust, With one whose need is greater than my own, His soul that it may live, Of the abundant pleasure I have known? And so, if I have wrought, Of beauty or intelligence or power, It stands there to afford Its generous service simply as a flower. -BLISS CARMEN. GOD GIVE US MEN God give us men! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking; Tall men, sun crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking; For while the rabble with their thumb-worn creeds, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps. LOVE OF COUNTRY Breathes there the man with soul so dead, This is my own, my native land; -WALTER SCOTT. VICTOR To have toiled upward through the barren years, That would have kept thee from the longed-for goalAll these are victories, oh, worthy sons! But to have battled bravely, and have failed- -BETH CLATER WHITSON, in Metropolitan Magazine. A FLOWER GARDEN FOR THOSE WHO FAIL "All honor to him who shall win the prize," Give glory and honor and pitiful tears Oh, great is the hero who wins a name, And great is the man with a sword undrawn, ABRAHAM LINCOLN A blend of mirth and sadness, smiles and tears, A homely hero born of star and sod; LIGHT The night has a thousand eyes, The day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies 263 |