In Memoriam: Ronald Croft
This is a tribute to a great man, Ronald Croft, a church organist and beloved father of Dr. Rodney Croft, a surgeon in London. The funeral was a lovely service with great choral and organ music and a reading of Tennyson’s “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,
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 crossed the bar.
According to Dr. Rodney Croft, Tennyson uses the metaphor of the sand bar at the estuary mouth as the frontier between life and death. He wishes to sail out on the flood tide when the bar does not moan as it does at low tide with the sea rushing against it. He hopes to see his Pilot face to face (i.e. God). Dr. Croft said, “It’s a great poem for just such an occasion, very allegorical and so meaningful. It’s the end of an era, but I am so grateful for my father’s life and the enormous impact it had upon me.”#
