Love to the Church
I love thy kingdom, Lord,The house of thine abode,The church our blest Redeemer savedWith his own precious blood.
I love thy church, O God!Her walls before thee stand,Dear as the apple of thine eye,And graven on thy hand.
If e'er to bless thy sonsMy voice or hands deny,These hands let useful skill forsake,This voice in silence die.
For her my tears shall fall,For her my prayers ascend;To her my cares and toils be givenTill toils and cares shall end.
Beyond my highest joyI prize her heavenly ways,Her sweet communion, solemn vows,Her hymns of love and praise.
Jesus, thou friend divine,Our Saviour and our King,Thy hand from every snare and foeShall great deliverance bring.
Sure as thy truth shall last,To Zion shall be givenThe brightest glories earth can yield,And brighter bliss of heaven.
Words in this poem
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- redeemer n.
- One who redeems.
- graven p. p.
- Carved. Graven image, an idol; an object of worship carved from wood, stone, etc.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- saviour n.
- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. [OE. saveour, OF. salveor, F. sauveur, fr. L. salvator to save. See Save, v.]
- zion n.
- A hill in Jerusalem, which, after the capture of that city by the Israelites, became the royal residence of David and his successors. [Heb. tsiy, originally, a hill.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love to the Church is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from American Poetry, with Special Reference to Poe, Longfellow, Lowell and Whittier, edited by Margaret Sprague Carhart, Project Gutenberg ebook #3650; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Timothy Dwight, Love to the Church, (1800), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carhart-timothy-dwight/love-to-the-church.html, id L25951.
Form and metre
Love to the Church is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in short measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 -A-A god · standA · eye · handA
- 3 -A-A sons · denyA · forsake · dieA
- 4 -A-A fall · ascendA · given · endA
- 5 -A-A joy · waysA · vows · praiseA
- 6 -A-A divine · kingA · foe · bringA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I love thy kingdom, Lord, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The house of thine abode, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The church our blest Redeemer saved | 8 | ··/·˘/˘· |
| With his own precious blood. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I love thy church, O God! | 6 | ······ |
| Her walls before thee stand, | 6 | ······ |
| Dear as the apple of thine eye, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And graven on thy hand. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| If e'er to bless thy sons | 6 | ······ |
| My voice or hands deny, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| These hands let useful skill forsake, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| This voice in silence die. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For her my tears shall fall, | 6 | ······ |
| For her my prayers ascend; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| To her my cares and toils be given | 8 | ·······/ |
| Till toils and cares shall end. | 6 | ······ |
| Beyond my highest joy | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I prize her heavenly ways, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her sweet communion, solemn vows, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Her hymns of love and praise. | 6 | ······ |
| Jesus, thou friend divine, | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Our Saviour and our King, | 6 | //˘·/· |
| Thy hand from every snare and foe | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Shall great deliverance bring. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Sure as thy truth shall last, | 6 | ······ |
| To Zion shall be given | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| The brightest glories earth can yield, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And brighter bliss of heaven. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.