Church Going Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay

The main motif of this poem is the speaker's relationship to the church as a physical place. This emphasis on the material structure of the church demonstrates that the speaker doesn't have the rel...

Whether it's the "matting, seats, and stone" (3), the "neat organ" (6), or the "lectern" (13), lots of church-related objects come up in this poem. The speaker focuses on these objects because he l...

The speaker of this poem constantly wonders about what kinds of people will be the last to come to the church after religious belief has faded away. In stanza 4, he wonders about "dubious women" co...

Nature comes up in lines 26 and 36 to show how the natural world might take over the church buildings once the last of the human believers have gone away. There's a certain inevitability to this th...