We Love the Venerable House
We Love the Venerable House - meaning Summary
House of Communal Memory
Emerson praises the local church as a venerable, communal space where ancestors’ faith endures. The poem describes prayers, humble faces, and quiet reflection that sanctify the building and link ordinary lives to eternal truths. It emphasizes continuity across generations: the dead ‘‘live with God’’ while their children keep praying, trusting that devotion practiced in daily life leads to the ‘‘narrow way’’ toward heaven.
Read Complete AnalysesWe love the venerable house Our fathers built to God; In heaven are kept their grateful vows, Their dust endears the sod. Here holy thoughts a light have shed From many a radiant face, And prayers of humble virtue spread The perfume of the place. And anxious hearts have pondered here The mystery of life, And prayed th'eternal Light to clear Their doubts and aid their strife. From humble tenements around Came up the pensive train, And in the church a blessing found, That filled their homes again. For faith, and peace, and mighty love, That from the Godhead flow, Showed them the life of heaven above Springs from the life below. They live with God their homes are dust; Yet here their children pray, And in this fleeting lifetime trust To find the narrow way.
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