How many a father have I seen, A sober man, among his boys, Whose youth was full of foolish noise.
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For though 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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the transition from life to death and the hope of meeting a higher presence thereafter.
In this poem, Alfred Lord Tennyson contemplates his own mortality and the journey towards the afterlife. He expresses a desire for a peaceful departure without sadness, while expressing faith in a reunion with a divine 'Pilot' after crossing the boundary of life, symbolized by 'the bar'. The imagery evokes the idea of death not as an end, but as a transition to something greater.
Themes
DeathHopeTransitionFaithAfterlife
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a eulogy to comfort those grieving a loss.
More from Alfred Lord Tennyson
All quotes →O Love! what hours were thine and mine, In lands of palm and southern pine; In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine!
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
Earth is dry to the centre,_x000D_ But spring, a new comer,_x000D_ A spring rich and strange,_x000D_ Shall make the winds blow_x000D_ Round and round,_x000D_ Thro' and thro',_x000D_ Here and there,_x000D_ Till the air_x000D_ And the ground_x000D_ Shall be fill'd with life anew.
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
But thy strong Hours indignant work’d their wills, And beat me down and marr’d and wasted me, And tho’ they could not end me, left me maim’d To dwell in presence of immortal youth, Immortal age beside immortal youth, And all I was, in ashes. - Tithonus
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
Gone - flitted away, Taken the stars from the night and the sun From the day! Gone, and a cloud in my heart.
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
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