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Crossing the Bar

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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,

   But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
      Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
      Turns again home.

   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 crost the bar.

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Poet Bio

Engraving of Alfred (Lord) Tennyson (1809-1892), English poet. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born one of 12 children to a wealthy family in Lincolnshire, England. With poems such as In Memoriam, an elegy for a friend, and Idylls of the King, a long narrative, Tennyson became the most popular English poet of his time. Queen Victoria made him Poet Laureate in 1850. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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