XXV SUNSET AND EVENING STAR THE TEXT OF THE HYMN I Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar 2 But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep 3 Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell When I embark; 4 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 crost the bar. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1889 NOTE. The text is taken from Demeter and Other Poems, 1889. 66 THE STORY OF THE HYMN 'Crossing the Bar' was written in my father's eightyfirst year," writes the present Lord Tennyson in the Memoir; on a day in October when we came from Aldworth to Farringford. Before reaching Farringford he had the Moaning of the Bar in his mind, and after dinner he showed me this poem written out. I said, 'That is the crown of your life's work.' He answered, 'It came in a moment.' He explained the 'Pilot' as 'that Divine and Unseen who is always guiding us.' A few days before my father's death he said to me: 'Mind you put "Crossing the Bar" at the end of all editions of my poems.' The lyric was published in the volume of 1889, Demeter and Other Poems, and won instant acceptance. The student of poetry was glad that the old tree should bear so perfect a flower, and the religious public was touched by the venerable poet's avowal of his personal faith. The first public use of the poem was as an anthem at Lord Tennyson's funeral in Westminster Abbey on October 12th, 1892. The daughter of the Dean of Westminster has pictured the scene :— "As the procession slowly passed up the nave and paused beneath the lantern, where the coffin was placed during the first part of the burial service, the sun lit up the dark scene, and touched the red and blue Union Jack upon the coffin with brilliant light, filtering through the painted panes of Chaucer's window on to the cleared purple space by the open grave, and lighting up the beautiful bust of Dryden, the massive head of Longfellow, the gray tomb of Chaucer and the innumerable wreaths Sunset & evenery star, And one clear call for me. And may there be no morning of the bas, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, When that which them from out the boundless deep Twilight evening bell, and after that the disk: And may there be no sadness of farewell, For the from out wor воина bourne & Time & Place The floor may best me fas, I hope to see my Purt face to face, When I hese crost the for FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT heaped upon it. In the intense and solemn silence which followed the reading of the lesson were heard the voices of the choir singing in subdued and tender tones Tennyson's Crossing the Bar -those beautiful words in which the poet, as it were, prophetically foretold his calm and peaceful deathbed. In the second line the clear, thrilling notes of a boy's voice sounded like a silver trumpet call amongst the arches, and it was only at intervals that one distinguished Dr. Bridge's beautiful organ accompaniment, which swelled gradually from a subdued murmur as of the morning tide into a triumphant burst from the voices, so blended together were words and music." The credit of introducing Tennyson's lyric as a hymn. belongs to Presbyterians. A committee of the Free Church of Scotland engaged Sir Joseph Barnby to set it to music, and printed it in their Home and School Hymnal of 1893. In this country also the Presbyterians were the first to include it among their hymns, it appearing in The Hymnal of 1895. It has since appeared in The Church Hymnary of the Scottish Churches and in several independent collections. THE AUTHOR OF THE HYMN Alfred Tennyson was born August 6th, 1809, at Somersby, a Lincolnshire village of which his father was the rector. Even as a child he made verses, and as early as 1827 he and his brother Charles published a volume of Poems by Two Brothers. The next year he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. "The Lover's Tale" was written at that time, and in the summer following he gained the chancellor's prize for a poem on Timbuctoo. When only twenty-one Tennyson published his Poems Chiefly Lyrical. They had a wonderful freshness, and in them were the very witchery of music and all the shapes and colors of word painting. Dreamy young people were fascinated by these lyrics. Older people, whose tastes had been formed on more conventional models, looked at them more doubtfully, and some, like Christopher North, laughed at them. They were the experiments of a young artist, and many of the poems Tennyson withdrew afterward, with the deepening of his thoughts and purposes. But the book marks the worthy beginning of a great poetic career of more than sixty years, that in its circumstances and its influence is almost ideal. Tennyson no doubt will always stand as the representative poet of Queen Victoria's reign. To trace that career and to record his poetical achievements belongs to English literature and not to hymnology. Except the little children's hymn in "The Promise of May," and possibly this poem, Tennyson wrote nothing designed for a hymn, although some verses from the prologue of "In Memoriam" are often included in hymn books. It was a favorite project with his friend Dr. Jowett, Master of Balliol College, that the poet should "write a few hymns in a high strain, to be a treasure to the world and to the Church." "I want him to think of millions of persons repeating his words with the living voice, during many centuries. Is this a crown to be despised?"-Jowett wrote to the poet's son. But Tennyson had a feeling that hymns were expected to be commonplace, and for that reason, perhaps, he felt little impulse to attempt them. Tennyson had a deeply religious nature and regarded himself as intrusted with a divine message. He was a |