Construction and Building
Building and construction are everywhere in this poem. It's about an altar, but also about all the steps the speaker has taken to build his altar. An altar has been "reared." That altar is "cemente...
The Heart
The word "heart" shows up four times in this poem. In a poem that's only 16 lines long, that's once every four lines—quite a bit when you think about it. This is because the heart is really, real...
Sacrifice
"The Altar" is a poem about sacrifice. It's not a gruesome animal sacrifice or anything like that. No, it's a more spiritual sacrifice, one that involves, time, labor, and dedication. The kind of s...