How the Poet Soars into Devotional Ecstasy in Crossing the BarA Rhetorical Study

Abstract

Lord Alfred Tennyson silhouetting the “intellectual throne” of Victorian England with his entire blaze is often called a “poetic stylist”. Starting his poetic journey from 1829 with Timbuctoo he wrote different kinds of poetry some of which were gay, some serious, some flippant, a lot many passionate, some with a note of lamentation and a large number sensuous. But as his life and poetic career gradually rolls on like the rising sun across the sky with time he gains the inevitable maturity and deeper insight into the cosmic evolutionary process. His poems from mere sensuousness attain a devotional note of complete spiritual surrender at the feet of his “Pilot” and his yearning to unite with Him intensifies. He wins over the fear of death and dissolution; his poems from the elegiac note of Break, Break, Break transcend into an ecstatic mood in Crossing the Bar which he wanted to be inscribed as an epitaph on his sepulchre. But it is through the coalescence of form and function this total transcendence in thought, feeling and attitude to life succeeds in finding expression. Hence in this paper through the stylistic analysis of Crossing the Bar an attempt is made to study the poetic diction and versification, the rhetoric profile that enables the poet to create a milieu perfect for his heightened realization.