Crossing the Bar
By Lord Alfred Tennyson
The Poem
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 crost the bar.
I think the main rhetorical strategy that is being used is pathos. The reason I say that is because how Alfred Tennyson uses sadness and saying goodbye to things he loves. Everyone who reads that will have a connection like that because most people have had to say goodbye to someone or something they have loved in their life.