Crossing the Bar

"I hope to see my Pilot face to face/ When I have crossed the bar."

When I read this poem, I interpreted it very literally and thought the speaker was describing his journey across a sandbar into the ocean. Once I got to the line that reads "I hope to see my Pilot...", I realized that crossing the bar stood for something else entirely. The Pilot the speaker is talking about is God, and crossing the bar symbolizes death. His death occurs during the night as shown through all of the terms illustrating nighttime: "evening star," "asleep," "dark", "evening bell," and "twilight." He also asks for no sadness or mourning, saying "may there be no mourning of the bar." The speaker describes death in a variety of ways, saying he is crossing the bar, going to embark, or being put out to sea. The death he is describing sounds very peaceful and I got the impression that he has been preparing for that moment. He contrasts the "boundless deep" with "home." He came from the boundless deep, like the universe, and is returning home to his Pilot, God.