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, …

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
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.


Alfred Tennyson, “Crossing the Bar,” in Poems of the English Race, ed. Raymond Macdonald Alden (1921), 362 as quoted in Thomas S. Monson, “Mrs. Patton—the Story Continues,” Ensign, Nov 2007, 21–24